


Closing Time

by YoYoHa



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Arranged Marriage, M/M, Masturbation, More tags later, Pining, Rated E for future chapters, Slow Burn, Smut, bar au, there's no cheating in this fanfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-02-16 08:21:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 26,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18687718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YoYoHa/pseuds/YoYoHa
Summary: Kravitz owns a bar named Raven's Nest, and when he gets some interesting customers who skip their tab, it sets two people down a life-changing road of events.Bar AU





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first TAZ fanfic. A friend of mine requested an arranged marriage AU scenario so I figured I'd give it a shot! I'll try to update once a week or something!

Kravitz was polishing cups when the first customer walked in for the night. 

His cook had yet to clock in, so he hoped that this customer wouldn’t want food as she sat down at the bar. He gave her a moment to look over their food and drink menu and at the specials written up on the walls, as she didn’t look familiar. 

“What can I get you?” he asked her, setting down his cup. 

“Could I just have a Vodka Cranberry and one of your mulled ciders?”

It was their house specialty for the fall and winter months. 

“Can I see your ID?” Kravitz asked, holding his hand out for the license handed to him. He gave it a trained glance before handing it back. He began making her two drinks.

Two customers later, and his chef arrived. He wasn’t the best around, and Kravitz was always giving him leeway, but he had too many other things on his plate running and staffing his own bar. The bar was still small so he couldn’t afford to hire someone else to work the front of the house as well. Not yet. So for now it was just the two of them. 

The rest of the night went smoothly, as it normally went, and it wasn’t far into the evening that Kravitz broke even for the day, and he breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he was making profit, there was hope for the future. 

At around 11, a group of young adults who had clearly been drinking already staggered in, and Kravitz took a mental note of them to keep an eye out for any rowdiness. They took a seat in one of the booths in the corner and immediately the largest of their party began inspecting the booth. 

“I’m surprised they were able to carve such nice designs into this type of oak. It’s simple but classy,” he said, smoothing his hands over the wood. Kravitz rolled his eyes. It wasn’t like he was going to go all out buying expensive booths so that one out of ever hundred customer would be satisfied with the _wood-working_.

“Oh my god, Magnus, could you not inspect every chair and table we come across? We know you’ve got wood for wood.”

A few patrons turned to look at them, considering the noise, even over the music that was playing over the speakers. Kravitz made eye contact with one of the men at the table, and couldn’t help but stare at the similarities between him and the woman sitting with them. They must have been related. 

The man slid out of the booth with more grace than an intoxicated person should have, and sauntered up to the bar, getting between two seats and leaning over it. 

“Could I get a Cosmopolitan, an Old Fashioned, and a Mojito, puh-lease?”

The cadence of his voice was a little annoying, but Kravitz did his best to wear a pleasant face. 

“Are you ordering for your friends? I’ll need to see your IDs,” he commented. 

“Ooh, a bit of a stickler, I see. I like it,” the man said, flipping a blond braid over his hair before walking back to his table to presumably get everyone’s IDs. 

Another flirty one. Exactly what Kravitz didn’t like. 

The man returned with the other two’s IDs, and Kravitz got to work making the drinks. 

“So, what’s your name, what’s your story?”

“That’s pretty forward of you,” Kravitz laughed. 

“I’m not quite a fan of idle chit-chat,” he responded, leaning his face on his palm to watch Kravitz work. 

“I’m Kravitz,” he offered, not wanting to be rude to a customer. 

“Kravitz,” the other repeated, as if trying the name out on his tongue. “I’m Taako.”

The name seemed vaguely familiar, but he wondered if it was because his name was also the name of a delicious food item. 

“Nice to meet you.”

Taako seemed a little surprised at the reaction, as if he was expecting something more, but he didn’t say anything. Not having anything else to say, he took a moment to look around, spotting the kitchen menu on the bar. 

“Oh, you sell food?”

Kravitz, who was in the middle of making a Mint Julep for another customer, turned to him. 

“Yeah, you want me to put an order in for you?”

“Yeah, just give me a second,” Taako said, before slipping off his stool and going to his friends. Kravitz was starting to think that maybe he wasn’t as intoxicated as he originally thought. By the time Kravitz was working on their drinks, Taako returned with their order. 

“We’ll get the three cheese Panini, the spinach artichoke dip, and a shrimp salad,” he responded when he sat down, and Kravitz dried off his hands, pausing in making the drink to write the order and hang it in the window. 

“You opening a tab?” Kravitz asked, and Taako handed him a card. Kravitz put the info into his system so that checking him out at the end would be that much easier.  
No one else had ordered food around that time, but Kravitz knew his cook well enough to know it was going to be a while before any food got out. He handed Taako the drinks for their table, and upon his return, the other two cheered. 

Kravitz noted the drinks on his tab. 

As the night continued, other customers came and went. It took about an hour for the food to get out, and the only explanation received was the chef Buddy saying, “it gets out when it gets out.” In the time it took for their food to come out, they had each gotten about three or four more drinks. 

Their kitchen closed after Taako’s order came out, and there were only a few patrons left, some watching an old black and white film on the TV that hung over the bar while having low conversation. In the corner, a woman was tucked away at a tall table, on her phone, and of course, there was the table with Taako and his friends. 

“Alright, here’s your food,” Kravitz said, bringing the food over with the trained balance of being in the restaurant business. 

“Uh, no sir,” Taako said as Kravitz started putting the food on the table. “That’s very obviously burnt.”

Kravitz was taken aback by the criticism. 

“I can go get another?”

“Taako, this isn’t time for your bougie palate,” the burly man said, reaching over to where the spinach artichoke dip had been set down and taking a bite with one of the pita chips on the plate. 

The girl who Kravitz presumed was Taako’s sister looked down at her salad and whistled low. 

“Yeah, that’s gonna be a no from me, dawg.”

Everyone was a critic. 

“More for me then!” the other guy said. 

Kravitz would take off the food from their bill and have a very stern talking to with his cook. 

“Is there anything else I can do for you?” he asked, making sure to keep his eye on the rest of the bar. 

“Yeah, edible food,” Taako commented, stirring the spinach artichoke dip. The girl cackled before high-fiving Taako, effectively pissing Kravitz off. He walked back to stand behind the bar, taking that time to calm himself down. 

The bar owner heard the door jingle as someone walked in, and when he saw who it was, there was a familiar face. 

“Hello, darling,” he said as she smiled, blushing lightly. He knew that his fiancée, Eileen, was here to help him close. Normally he wouldn’t trust anyone else with the money and business details, but considering that she would probably help out once they were married, Kravitz didn’t see any reason not to wean her onto the process. She was the best marriage candidate from the pool his mother selected, and Kravitz was purely supportive of the decision. He was loyal and trusting of his mother more than he cared about his own efficacy, and it wasn’t like the option was terrible. Kravitz was allowed to have say in which candidate he liked best, and it simplified the confusing net of dating as well, so overall, he was grateful to his mother, and to Eileen, his fiancée. 

She stayed for the remaining hour and a half, only drinking water, until the last customers left. They made light conversation when Kravitz wasn’t tending to customers, and she turned to her phone as people hurried to close out their tabs. 

After the door was closed and locked, the two of them began going through the orders from the night. 

“Did you break even?” Eileen asked, scanning through receipts. 

“Yes, pretty early on,” he said, going through his own stack. They both checked each other’s stack to make sure they didn’t miss anything, and before they were about to close everything for the night, Kravitz realized that he hadn’t seen Taako’s name on any of the closed tabs or receipts, and he knew he paid with a card because he opened a tab. 

Taking another fine-toothed look, he realized that the amount of drinks he sold verses his profit weren’t equal. 

Taako, and maybe his entire group, had skipped out on paying their bill, and when he realized it, he groaned. He _really_ needed to install cameras for security.

“What’s wrong, Kravitz?” Eileen asked as the bar owner pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation. 

“We had some dine and dashers tonight,” Kravitz said, going ahead and finishing with closing out the register. Eileen gasped. 

“Did they order a lot?” she asked, curiously craning her neck to catch a glimpse at the receipt. 

“It was quite a bit. There were three of them and they got a couple of drinks and food too.”

Eileen sighed. 

“Can’t win them all.”

After they finished closing out, Kravitz and Eileen left, locking the door behind him and setting up the electronic security system which beeped at their exit. 

“Waffle House?” Eileen asked a bit shyly, and Kravitz smiled. He was tired from his long day, but the Waffle House dates he’d have with Eileen after work were one of the few times he could distress and talk with another person without having to worry about money being wrapped up in how pleasant his conversation was. Eileen was also enjoyable and comforting to talk to, and Kravitz was happy and willing to make time for his fiancée at the end of his long days.

“I really have to talk with Buddy about the food,” Kravitz sighed, sticking his hands in his jacket pockets. He missed the forlorn look that Eileen gave him while she stuck her own hands in her denim jacket pockets. “There were some rude customers tonight, but honestly, I wouldn’t eat Buddy’s food if I was getting paid for it.”

“The food is an important part of the business, Kravitz. I’ve been telling you that you need to replace him if he doesn’t get his act together,” Eileen chided, walking over to the passenger side of Kravitz’s sleek, black car. 

Kravitz unlocked the doors and slid into the driver’s side. 

“I know, I’ll talk to him tomorrow. His behavior has also been unacceptable.”

“How so?”

“He comes in late every day,” Kravitz groaned, turning the key in the ignition. 

Eileen clicked her tongue. “Your standards are higher than that, Kravitz.”

The statement left a bit of a sour taste in Kravitz’s mouth. Sure, they were engaged, and had known each other for a while, but what did Eileen know about Kravitz’s standards?  
But he let it go, because she was right. Kravitz didn’t accept the quality of work he was getting from Buddy. 

“You’re right,” Kravitz said, and the conversation died into a comfortable silence. Eileen turned on the radio, earning a glance from Kravitz and pursed lips, which she didn’t notice. He brushed his irritation off on Buddy and Taako.

Tomorrow he’d call Buddy, but right now, he’d enjoy time with his fiancée, and hopefully, he’d never have to see Taako and his friends again.


	2. Chapter 2

“I need to see a better effort from you, or it’s going to be your job,” Kravitz said into the receiver. He was surprised that Buddy had even picked up, as he was prone to miss calls constantly. 

_”Alright, alright. I’ll see you tonight.”_ Buddy said, rather off-handedly, and Kravitz told him goodbye before hanging up. 

Kravitz rubbed his temples from where he sat at his desk. It was pristine and highly organized, just the way Kravitz liked to work. It was a Herculean effort to keep everything organized while also being an owner and proprietor of a bar, but somehow he figured it out. He had to, in order to save him from more trouble later down the road. 

It had been a week since the incident with Taako, and Kravitz couldn’t stop thinking about it. It wasn’t the first time he’d had people dine and dash, and it wasn’t even a large amount of money in the scope of the profit he made that night, but it was the fact of the matter that made him irritated about it. Kravitz couldn’t help but wonder if Taako had been trying to cozy up to and flirt with him for free drinks or something, and that type of behavior was abhorrent to a man like Kravitz. He believed in honesty and decency; he was transparent to a fault and a hard-worker who played by the rules and lived his life comfortably. He couldn’t puzzle out Taako’s motivations, and hoped that he wouldn’t have to see him again.

Unluckily for Kravitz, he saw Taako later that night. 

It was the weekend, and there was a local musician who had asked to play for exposure. He was pretty good, even if violin wasn’t the hottest thing right now. Johann, the musician, had brought some friends, which was good. It meant more people than usual drinking and hopefully enjoying themselves. 

Kravitz didn’t have a lot of money for marketing, so he relied mostly on word of mouth to get new people through the door, and if musicians were bringing their friends, then they were bringing profit. 

There was a good buzz going on in the bar when Taako walked in. 

The same two were with him, but this time there was a shorter man with a burly beard and thick glasses, and a dark-skinned woman with salt and pepper hair as well. 

“Taako,” Kravitz said authoritatively, but with a pleasant air, as not to disturb his other customers. “Come here for a moment.”

Taako turned to face his friends and Kravitz could see him wiggle his eyebrows. 

“What’s up, my dude? You remembered my name.”

“That’s because you didn’t pay your tab last week. I’m sure it was just an accident, but we are a small business so-“

“No, I was boycotting your shitty food.”

Kravitz’s eyebrows furrowed. He had been willing to give Taako the benefit of the doubt if he saw him again, and play it nice to avoid confrontation. But Taako was now admitting that he had purposefully refused to pay.

“Excuse me?”

“Your food. It was _terr_ -ible, and we were boycotting it. Not Magnus though, he’s a good boy who can’t stand up to the vile corruption of the culinary arts, so he paid. You didn’t make it did you?”

“No, we have a chef, but that’s besides the-”

Taako laughed, interrupting Kravitz. 

“I’d hardly call whoever you’ve got working back there a chef, but I’m glad it wasn’t you. There’s nothing more unattractive than a man that cooks like shit.”

Kravitz clenched his teeth. 

“While I’m delighted to hear your reviews on my food, I’m going to have to ask that you pay or else I call the cops,” Kravitz responded, practiced at keeping a level head despite his irritation. 

“Woah, there big boy, no need to call the cops. I’ve been thinking about it, and I figured we could arrange some mutually beneficial relationship. I have _tons_ of pointers I can give your chef.”

“Your bill was $100 and you expect me to trade that for _culinary tips_?” 

Taako looked almost surprised, as if the deal wasn’t completely asinine. The entire situation was surreal, and Kravitz wondered if he should pinch himself.

“Uh, yeah?”

“Oh my god, you’re _Taako_! From TV!”

The blond turned to look at who was addressing him and it was Johann, the musician that Kravitz allowed to play. He was taking a break at the bar between sets, and nearly dropped his IPA.

“The one and only, bucko,” Taako said, leaning casually on the bar, as if he didn’t just have Kravitz threaten to call the cops on him. 

“I don’t care where you’re from, but when you’re in this bar, you’re expected to pay like everyone else.”

“Yeesh, you really are a stickler, I was just pulling your leg, homie” Taako said, fishing his wallet from the pockets in his skirt. “Just charge it.”

Kravitz took the card Taako handed out to him, and went ahead, charging the amount that he didn’t collect the other night. 

“Did you do a show?” Johann asked, intrigued by the man in front of him. 

“Actually no, just getting a little R&R. Good drinks here though, even if the food is god awful.”

Kravitz wasn’t appreciating the slander. 

“How about you go try and make something better if you’re going to complain,” he said gruffly, handing over Taako’s card and receipt to sign. 

“Oh, can I? Something has to be done about this menu.”

“Fucking go for it.”

Taako signed his name and turned to his group, shouting across the bar. 

“Yo, Lup, get ready we’re about to make some magic happen in the Raven’s Nest!”

Kravitz worried about what he might’ve done to his restaurant , but Kravitz couldn’t stand people who did nothing but complain. He saw Johann leaning over. 

“Could I have a copy of that receipt?”

Rolling his eyes, Kravitz put the receipt in his drawer, following Taako and his sister, Lup, to the kitchen and thining heavily on the ramifications for his actions. He stayed close to the door, ready to kick them out once they realized they were in over their heads, but when they walked in, Buddy’s eyes went wide. 

“Hey, what’s the big idea bringing Taako in here?!” he asked, as they began to move around the kitchen. 

Kravitz was starting to wonder what exactly he was missing. 

“Are they people I should know?”

“Oh man, Taako, he doesn’t even know who you are?” Lup said, pulling out some ingredients as Taako prepped pans. 

“I know, it’s tragic. But that’s okay, we’ll blow his mind.”

Buddy walked towards Kravitz, fuming. 

“He’s only the most famous young chef right now. He got his culinary degree at 18 and started his own TV show, ‘Sizzlin’ it Up With Taako’,” Buddy explained. “You’re trying to edge me out?”

“Woah, he’s really a person like that,” Kravitz said, a bit stupefied. 

“You’ve got some good kitchen equipment here, Krav,” Taako said, as he chopped the spinach and artichoke hearts. “Nice ingredients too, despite having way too much shit for this small bar.”

Buddy huffed and stormed past Kravitz, who was left watching them work in tandem. He would’ve never suspected he was a professional chef, and now he felt an inkling of guilt at having been so rude to Taako, and serving them poor quality food. He shook it off though, when he remembered Taako’s overly familiar, flirtatious attitude, and his refusal to pay a tab at his bar.

“Hey, you two hold up, I didn’t actually mean for you to come back here,” Kravitz said, sticking his head out the door to scan for Buddy.

People, who had been left waiting as Kravitz watched Taako and Lup, were impatiently tapping on the wooden surface at the bar to have their drink orders taken. 

“I’m so sorry for the wait, what can I get you?” Kravitz asked, turning up the charm and flashing a smile at an older woman. Buddy could wait, and so could Taako and Lup; he’d have to get this done quickly and then kick Taako and his sister out of his kitchen.

Buddy never showed back up, and Kravitz got slammed, ending up taking way more time than expected at the bar, and nervously looking to the kitchen, but Taako and Lup brought plates of food from the kitchen, everything that was on their menu except for better looking. 

“Krav, try these,” Taako said, setting down the plates on his arms. 

“My name is Kravitz.”

He was surprised that food that looked this good could come out of the kitchen so quickly. It was almost like magic. Kravitz must’ve had low standards and let them slip even lower if this was the true quality of a professional chef. 

He dipped a house chip into the spinach artichoke dip and took a bite. Immediately, Kravitz could taste the difference. Where before the spinach artichoke dip had been oily and full of chunks, this dip was creamy and had just the right balance of spinach and artichokes to everything else to prevent him from getting a weird aftertaste. 

“Holy shit.”

“Good, right?” Taako said. 

“We kinda overdid it, Taako,” Lup said, and patrons were eying the spread hungrily. 

“Help yourselves, amigos,” Taako said, “There’s enough to go around.”

“Hey, wait a minute, you have to pay-“

“Holy shit, did Taako cook?” the short, older man asked, hopping up on a stool so he could get his competitive share. 

“You know it, bubelah,” Taako said, sliding a fancy looking salad towards the man. 

The bar clamored to try his food, and Kravitz saw the glimpse of what may have been holding him back all this time. Beating the rush, Kravitz set up a “first come, first serve” payment option for just $5, and ended up making a good profit off of Taako and Lup’s experiment in his kitchen.

The rest of the night was almost unreal, with Johann playing various styles of music on the violin, keeping everyone on their toes. People texted their friends and told them about Taako’s presence and it was like a flood of new customers rushed in to taste a bit of Taako’s food, even if Kravitz did quickly kick him and Lup out from the kitchen after the first wave of food. 

Taako’s group ordered drinks as well during all that time, and when it was time to close and Eileen came in, she was surprised so many people still in the bar so close to closing.   
“What’s happening?” she asked, when she took her seat.

“Eileen, could you help me close out orders?” Kravitz said, ignoring her question and flitting from one end of the bar to the other, a little frazzled as he tried to take care of the mass of orders. 

By the end of the night, both of them were worn out, going through the mass of receipts to check their profits, and they couldn’t believe that they’d nearly doubled it. He was starting to think that maybe Taako walking into his bar was a pretty good thing.

But missing from the receipt pile was Taako’s name, and Kravitz sighed in exasperation.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I hope you've been enjoying the fic so far! I've been getting comments and kudos and people reblogging and liking the story on Tumblr that I couldn't help but post another chapter pretty early. I typically like to stay a few chapters ahead so I can edit things and help make the story better, and I've currently got a good little bit! 
> 
> I'm going to try and update at LEAST once a week, depending on how my schedule looks.

In a lavish apartment, Kravitz got ready for an event he’d been planning for quite some time now. He took a day off from setup at the bar, letting his mom handle it for tonight. Taking a day off was quite rare for Kravitz, but he did it for important things, and besides, he needed the break.

After the night Taako and Lup cooked for him, Kravitz saw an increase in people inquiring about the food, but with his chef gone, and not returning his calls, Kravitz had to inform them that the kitchen was regretfully closed. Not like anything of Taako’s caliber would come out of it anyway. 

Added to the list of impossibly numerous tasks Kravitz had to worry about as a small business owner and sole worker at his bar, he also needed to find a new chef, and a good one that would come in at a good price. 

But he was finding that task to be increasingly difficult. 

All his connections from his training were already working somewhere else, and informed him that the price he was asking for was too low. 

But Kravitz shrugged that off as he finished his eyeliner. He had to go all out for this year’s Pride Festival, after all. 

He wasn’t sure if his mother even knew he was going, and Kravitz wasn’t sure if he would want her to know or not. When he was younger, she didn’t take well to discovering he had a boyfriend, and Kravitz, who was young and served his mother obediently, squirreled his sexuality away. It was more convenient to him to have his mother’s support than to acknowledge an integral part of himself. Being bisexual had its downfalls when you had an unsupportive parent. 

But none of that mattered, because he was a relatively independent adult. He still relied on his mother’s help, mainly with the bar, and especially because she was a co-owner. He wasn’t certain if time had changed his mother’s mind, but he consoled himself by telling himself it didn’t matter now because he would marry Eileen and live happily after. 

However, just because he was engaged to a woman didn’t mean he wasn’t still bi, and he was going to celebrate that to make up for the years he’d denied that part of himself.   
In the midtown area, the streets were bustling with people and bright colors. Kravitz felt relatively dressed down, in a comfortable Bi Pride t-shirt and khaki pants. Because it was still cold outside, he also wore a black jacket, and he tucked his hands inside as he walked around, looking at merchandise and reveling in being comfortably out. 

Surprisingly, he saw Taako and his group of friends standing around a booth. 

“Mags, these are _so cute_!” Lup cheered, holding up a small, painted wooden keychain of a rainbow duck. Curiously, Kravitz walked over. He may not have known them very well, but they were currently the only people he vaguely recognized. And besides, he had to tell Taako to pay his tab from the other night.

“Hey, it’s the stickler bartender!” Taako said. 

“My name is Kravitz,” he corrected.

Now that he was closer, he could inspect the whole group. Taako was dressed to the nines in a high-waisted red skirt and a floral print tank top. He wore a cut-off denim jacket and rainbow tights because of the weather, and the floral print heels on his feet seemed like weapons. Lup wore a sweater, colored with the trans pride pastels, and light wash denim jeans with holes in them. Both Taako and Lup wore matching make-up that looked near professional, and they both stood out from their rather mundane-looking group of friends. 

“Hello, I’m Lucretia,” the dark-skinned woman from the other night offered, holding out her hand with a soft smile. She wore a fitted sky blue dress and flats, with a white blazer over it. She had some pride buttons pinned to her blazer, and looked relatively professional. 

“Davenport,” a short, red-haired man said, extending his hand in way of a greeting. Despite his shorter stature, he was built sturdy, and he wore a nondescript polo under his black jacket and jeans. 

The booth they were gathered around had Magnus and a gentle-looking blonde woman seated behind it. Wooden trinkets of all types were for sale, and many of the items were pride themed. Kravitz recognized Magnus easily as the burly man who would give carpentry pointers and belt Queen when he got to that point in his cups.

“Taako, you didn’t pay your tab the other night,” Kravitz said. “Would you mind coming in tonight and taking care of that?”

Taako groaned. “Yeah. Sorry, homie. I forgot.”

Lup slapped Taako on the back hard. 

“You can’t just steal his drinks, Taako!” 

“Did you make these?” Kravitz asked, his attention effectively grabbed now that his business was done. He also wasn’t very interested in talking with Taako, the man who had insulted his food and skipped out on paying his tab twice now. He picked up an intricately carved spherical keychain that was hollow on the inside and looked like a small masterpiece. 

“Yep!” Magnus said. “I own a store a few blocks from here, feel free to look around and tell me if anything interests you.”

“Mags is an expert when it comes to wood,” Taako said, leaning on the booth, and he earned a snicker from Lup. 

“I can see,” Kravitz said, ignoring the dirty innuendo. 

“Yep, no one handles that long, hard, dark wood like Magnus,” Lup added lasciviously. 

“Lup, _stop_ ,” Lucretia groaned, hiding her face in her hand. The blonde woman sitting at the booth just laughed. 

Kravitz shook his head and picked up a business card from Magnus’s booth. 

“I’m going to keep walking around. It was nice to see you all. Taako, pay your tab,” he said before stepping away. 

“Yes, sir,” Taako responded.

“It was nice to meet you,” Lucretia said, and Kravitz realized he already forgot her name.

Kravitz didn’t end up staying for too long, and didn’t stay for the parade, feeling nervous about his mother alone at the bar. After stopping by his apartment to change, he ended up going to finish setup for the bar. He could also continue the search for a chef in the comfort of his office.

Eileen came during the day, while Kravitz was scrolling job sites for potential hires. 

“I don’t know what to do, I mean, the kitchen being closed isn’t the _worst_ thing, but people need food with their drinks,” he said after greeting her, now wholeheartedly focused on the search for a new chef.

“I understand,” she said, even though the sort of vacant and uninterested look on her face told him otherwise. Kravitz realized that the business worries were going over her head, and that she probably showed up to help him set up. 

“Help me prep for tonight?”

She smiled as she agreed. Kravitz was definitely grateful to have her. The idea that they would get married and start a family was a bit surreal, but Kravitz was sure that one day he’d come to feel that overwhelming and consuming love that he heard so many others talk about. He definitely cared about her, and he would protect her, but it wasn’t romantic - it wasn’t _passionate_. After seeing so many happy couples at the Pride Festival today, he was starting to wonder if the comfortable and convenient lifestyle he was going for was actually worse for him than taking a chance with dating. 

Taako didn’t show up that night, but he showed up again the next Tuesday, and Kravitz personally walked over to their table. 

With him was Lup, with her arm linked with a man with cropped brown hair and glasses. 

“Taako,” Kravitz said, and gave the man a look. 

“Oh, Krav, how I love it when you say my name,” Taako said as he walked over to the bar where Kravitz had gestured him. “What can I do for you, kemosabe?”

“Your tab. In the future, you have to start paying those when you leave,” he explained. 

“Yes, yes, I’ll remember,” the chef said, pulling off the bar. “Was that all?”

“No,” Kravitz said, walking over to the other side of the bar to cut lemons. “Do you know of any chefs that might be interested in a job? After you came in, my old chef ran out and isn’t returning my calls.”

He didn’t want to ask Taako for help, but he assumed someone of his caliber probably had connections.

“Well, good, you didn’t need that bozo here anyway,” Taako commented. 

“Yeah, but now our kitchen is closed indefinitely until I can find a new one.”

Taako brought a hand up to his chin and looked towards the ceiling as he thought. 

“Is it a full-time position?”

“Yes.” 

“What’s the hourly pay?” 

“$18,” Kravitz said, knowing now that it was below the median. 

“Oohh, not good, not very good. Gimme a sec.” Taako walked back to his table and had a conversation with the two people there, Lup looked over towards the bar before sidling out of the booth and over to Kravitz. 

“Taako says you have a job for me?”

“For you?” Kravitz asked. Taako walked up behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder. 

“Lup is my baby sister-“

“I’m older.”

“-and my second in command when it comes to the kitchen. Well, not for my shows, because she doesn’t want to travel, but she’s an incredible chef. She’ll at least do better than that hack you had in here before,” Taako explained. 

Kravitz inspected her for a moment before sighing. He really couldn't ask for better if someone of Taako's caliber was personally recommending. 

“Okay, I’ll get you some paperwork.”

Lup and Taako high-fived. 

“What’s the starting salary?” Lup asked. 

“$18”

“Yikes. Make it $18.50 with a chance for a raise and I’m in.”

He could do that. He was starting to get a bit desperate.

“Deal,” Kravitz said, before reaching into a binder below his register and pulling out an application and tax forms. “Fill this out and just get this back to me when you’re ready. And we need to schedule you an interview.”

Lup took the papers back to the table where she sat with the other man, and Taako stayed at the bar, taking a seat. 

“You aren’t going to go sit with your sister?” Kravitz asked, not sure if he liked Taako’s presence or not, especially because of his flirty attitude. 

“Nah, Barry just got back in town, and Lup’s excited to spend some time with him.”

Kravitz turned to look at the couple. 

“Right. And he’s…?”

“Her husband.”

“Got it,” he said, filing the information away in his brain where he held most information about customers. He racked his brain for a minute for a name before he spoke again. “Magnus isn’t with you this time?”

“Magnus is with _his_ wife, Julia, tonight. She was at the Pride festival the other day, you might’ve seen her? They might show up later though,” Taako said, spinning the ice in his water with his straw. 

The mention of the Pride Festival gave Kravitz a bit of a shock, but he brushed it off. There was no need to feel nervous about it.

“No husband or wife for you?” Kravitz asked, putting the feeler question out there. 

“Hell no. No man can tie Taako down. Unless it’s in bed of course.”

Kravitz regretted asking. 

“What about you, hot stuff? Who’s that woman that keeps coming to see you?”

“That’s my fiancée, Eileen.”

Taako seemed to deflate a little hearing that Kravitz had a fiancée, but that was for the best. If Taako was in anyway after Kravitz romantically, he wanted to put an end to it. Kravitz didn’t want Taako hitting on him anymore. 

“Well, love’s everywhere these days.”

The way he said it sounded a bit forlorn, and definitely different from the banter he’d used up until now. Kravitz slid him a Cosmopolitan, remembering it as what Taako ordered both times he came in.

“Let me know what Barry and Lup want too. You guys are my first customers so you have my undivided attention until someone else walks in.” 

“That’s just how I like it.”

The lilting of his voice was starting to grow on him, and Kravitz wondered if it was because Taako had helped him out the other night that he was singing a different song about the blond chef. Kravitz’s opinion of him was moving from “Annoying Dine and Dasher” to “Kind of Annoying and Overly Flirtatious Customer”, which was much easier to handle.

“Who were the people with you the other night?”

Taako gave him a confused look. 

“What’d they look like?”

“A black woman with greying hair and a short older white guy with glasses.” Kravitz couldn’t remember the woman’s name, though he remembered seeing her at Pride.

Taako nodded. 

“The woman’s Lucretia. She’s a historian and volunteers at the library from time to time, so she doesn’t normally come out with us. And the sorry old guy is Merle, retired nurse and horticulturist.”

“I see. You have quite an eclectic group of friends.”

“Yeah, we play WoW together,” Taako said, sipping his drink. 

“WoW?”

“World of Warcraft.”

Kravitz hadn’t pegged the group of friends as people interested in World of Warcraft. He hadn’t had any interested in video games, especially not the particularly nerdy and expensive ones like WoW.

But different strokes for different folks, he guessed.

No one else walked in until a little closer to 7, and in that time, Taako and Kravitz had an enjoyable chat. Taako came across as an asshole, but Kravitz was starting to see that Taako was actually pretty multifaceted. He thought that maybe his original judgment of Taako was attributed to him not paying his tab the first night, and could definitely be altered, especially how he’s helped him out with his kitchen. 

“You own your own brand?” Kravitz asked, a bit bewildered. 

“Of course, can’t trust other people to do what I can do myself. But you own a bar so I bet you understand,” Taako responded, finishing off his third Cosmopolitan. 

“Yeah, I worked in bars in my 20s and I had so much fun doing it, and I realized that they could be a place where people came and let down their guard. They could be themselves,” Kravitz said, mixing up a drink for another customer. 

“Sounds deep. I just wanted to be famous.”

Kravitz spared a small laugh at that. 

“But owning one is an entirely different beast. Even though I only own part of it.”

“Tell me about it. I knew cooking was going to be a lot of work, but now I have to manage myself? Not fun. Though I do have someone who helps me out with more nitty gritty detail,” Taako responded before taking the last sip of his drink. “Who owns the other part of this place?”

“My mother. She had the financial backing and credit to take the loan out, but she’s pretty hands off.”

“Ah, that sounds pretty responsible.”

Nothing out of the ordinary occurred that night, and on down times, Kravitz spent the time talking with Lup about her tentative position at the Raven’s Nest, mainly that he wasn’t opposed to making hard decisions with the law if she gave him reason to. Taako stayed near the bar, presumably to give Lup and Barry some space, but flitted between the two enough. But when Eileen walked in, Taako vanished. 

After closing, as they piled up receipts, Kravitz had already guessed that he wouldn’t see Taako’s name, but was pleasantly surprised when he saw his fancy script.   
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Kravitz said with a smile, interrupting their silence. 

Eileen looked over to him quizzically, and Kravitz held up the receipt. 

“Taako paid for his tab.”

Eileen pursed her lips but smiled. 

“Well, it’s good he’s coming around. He was stealing before. That’s quite the improvement.”

She was right, but Kravitz shrugged. 

“He helped me make a hell of a lot more money on the night he came into the kitchen,” he said. “And he’s paying now, so it’s water under the bridge.”

“You’re too lenient,” Eileen sighed, returning to her receipts. 

“Maybe,” Kravitz responded. “I found a chef today though.”

Eileen put down her receipts. 

“Kravitz, that’s great!” she said, her face breaking into a wide grin. She hadn’t quite understood the stress and trouble he had finding a chef, but she knew it had been stressful for him. Her support was greatly appreciated. 

“It’s Taako’s sister, she helped out in the kitchen, and apparently is looking for a steady job.”

Eileen’s face fell a little. 

“Are you sure you can trust them? They did walk out with paying twice,” she said worried, but the thought had already occurred to Kravitz. 

“I told her that I would work under the fullest extent of the law if she pulled any funny business. They seem like good people, just a little…eccentric. I got to pick Taako’s brain a little today, and he seems like a genuinely okay guy.”

“I guess,” Eileen said. “I did some research on Taako and he just seems a little shady to me.”

This was news to Kravitz. 

“How so?”

“Well, he doesn’t have a known last name, and everything about his life before he entered culinary school is a mystery.”

That was a little cause for concern, and Kravitz decided he would keep his eye on them. He pondered on having never seen a last name on Taako’s card or on his signature and wondered why that was. He was no stranger to wanting to keep his private life private, but that was different from being untraceable. 

But that was something that Kravitz could worry about later.

“Waffle House?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come shout about TAZ with me on [tumblr!](https://12-trackmind.tumblr.com/)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter gets a little spicy, but I thought we could look a little at Taako! I hope you all enjoy, appropriate tags have been added. 
> 
> Also, I am considering getting a beta reader for this fic??? There's lots of things I would enjoy having some pointers and another set of eyes to check. I've never had a beta reader before, so if you're interested, just hmu on my [Tumblr](https://12-trackmind.tumblr.com/) and we can go from there! (If you have an example of your writing that would be dope as hell too!)
> 
> Edit: in addition to that, if you're interested in being a beta reader, I'll only take people 18+ as stuff will get real spicy and I wouldn't feel comfortable discussing those bits with a minor.

Things had stayed pretty normal for the next 3 months, and Taako made himself a regular at the Raven’s Nest. Lup’s job there was going smoothly and the rest of their friends came in as well.

Taako checked his watch, wondering how long it would be before he could visit his new favorite bar, when Lup came and sat on his bed. 

Because he traveled so often for shows, the twins had decided to keep a house where they lived together. Barry lived there too, but when touring season started up, it was essentially Barry and Lup alone. Taako secretly relished that they were still happy to have him stay, because there wouldn’t be any point for him to pay for his own apartment. 

And it was _nice_ living with Lup. Taako wouldn’t admit it out loud, but having his sister around was _nice_. He didn’t know if they would even be capable of living apart after everything they’d been through together. 

“So when are you going to talk to me about your crush on the bartender?” 

Taako rolled his eyes, putting down the contract of a booking for a tour nearly 2 months out.

“There’s no point in talking about it,” Taako commented. 

“But it’s fuuuuunnn,” she whined.

He wasn’t planning on addressing the elephant in the room, but this was nearly the 100th time Lup asked and he’d only known the man for a few months. It only took Lup a week after Taako realized he had a crush to begin questioning him. 

“He’s engaged.”

“Yeah, but looks are free, and he’s pretty damn fine.”

Taako groaned. 

“He’s _so_ fine.”

“Like illegally fine.”

“Those cheekbones could cut a man,” Taako sighed, resting his cheek in his palm. “And he’s literally so nice and responsible, and _gay_.”

“Well, technically, he’s bi,” Lup corrected. 

“Yeah but he likes guys, which meant that if he weren’t engaged I’d at least have a chance to mack on his perfect face,” Taako groaned. 

“It’s been so long since you’ve had a crush, even if it does happen to be on a literally unobtainable god of a man,” Lup said, lying down on his bed. 

Taako shrugged. It _had_ been a while since he had a legitimate crush on someone, but that didn’t mean he was going to act on it, especially since Kravitz was engaged. Taako had way more class than that.

“And not only is he fine, he’s a good boss too, you really saved his bacon. He gives orders like he was _born_ to.”

At the word “bacon” Taako felt a hankering, despite Lup’s lascivious tone. 

“First of all, fuck you for mentioning bacon. Second of all, I’m going to tell Barry you’re talking like that about your boss.”

Lup groaned and rolled her eyes. 

“You’re no fun, baby bro.”

“I’m older.”

“Like hell you are,” Lup said, before sitting up. “But I actually came in here to tell you that Barry and I are going to go get Chinese before taking some samples at the lake. Did you want some?”

“You know it,” Taako replied. Lup stood up and walked from the room. 

Taako went back to reading his contract, but found his thoughts swimming with Kravitz, and he groaned, deciding that maybe he should take a break. He hadn’t expected to see Kravitz at the Pride Festival a few months ago, and the knowledge that he was bi was knowledge that Taako definitely didn’t need. But he’d had crushes before, so he could get over it, somehow. That's what he kept telling himself at least.

Taako pulled out his phone. He needed a distraction today.

He sent a text message to Magnus, and while waiting for a response, made the executive decision to debase himself. His thoughts weren't going away, and the thought of taking care of them seemed tempting. 

Once he heard Lup and Barry leave, Taako locked to room to his door and returned to his bed. There wasn’t much he could do about the thoughts of Kravitz in his head, and rather than just simmer uncomfortably, Taako would attempt to do _something_. 

Squirreled away in a box at the top of his closet were his toys, and he gave the box a look as he pondered how much time he might have if Lup and Barry were going to get Chinese. 

Deciding that he probably didn’t have enough time, he just pulled the lube from his bedside drawer and set it on top. Of course he could wait until Lup and Barry went out to do science stuff, but the heat starting to coil in his belly didn’t want to wait. 

He was wearing a long skirt and a flicker of a thought of Kravitz fucking him while he was still wearing it flashed in his mind. With that thought, his mind was made up, and he pulled off his underwear, leaving the skirt, before grabbing the lube off his end table. He poured a generous amount of it on his fingers and positioned himself so his chest was on the bed and his ass was up. 

With a sigh, he used his fingers to breach his tight ring of muscles, imagining instead something much thicker penetrating him. At the same time, he began to stroke himself languidly, feeling small tendrils of pleasure snake through him as he roused his dick. 

It didn’t take long until his member was weeping in his own hand, heavy in a familiar way as he pistoned first one, then two, then three fingers inside his entrance. He panted, his face turned to the side as he took in ragged breaths, but he stayed otherwise quiet, a skill he had to learn when living with his sister. He felt good, but the high that began to wash over him was coordinated and a bit mundane, made better only with the thought of Kravitz above him moaning praises. 

Taako felt a swell in his chest as his fingers brushed against his prostate, and his hips jerked as his mouth fell open in a silent moan. He pumped his hand faster with practiced ease as he felt his orgasm creep up on him, then without warning, it hit him. The blond gave a pleasured cry as his body shook and spilled his seed over his bed sheets.  
His session was quick and efficient, the way they typically are, and Taako sighed as the guilt began to seep in. 

He really needed to get laid. 

He pulled his fingers from his ass and walked to the adjoined bathroom in his room to wash his hands, shaking them to dry when he was finished. When he returned, he grimaced at the spot on his bed sheets and knew he would have to wash them. Of course that meant Lup and Barry would know exactly just what Taako had decided to do with his free time if he didn’t finish by time they got back, but Taako couldn’t give a rat’s ass. 

Taako took care of his bed sheets before checking his phone, seeing he got an affirmative reply from Magnus. He smiled, and went to his bathroom to begin covering up the scars on his fingers.

***

Later in the afternoon, Taako found himself exasperated in front of a confused Magnus.

“You’re literally. _Literally_ the worst help, Magnus Burnsides.”

“I’m sorry! I don’t know what to say! ‘Yeah, Taako, you totally look hot in that’,” Magnus joked. 

“That’s precisely what you’re supposed to say!” Taako said, shifting his weight to one hip. “If it helps, picture it on Julia or something.”

Magnus pondered for a moment and just before Taako was about to throw in the towel, Magnus cocked his head to the side. 

“Maybe with the blue jacket?”

“Magnus, for the last time it’s a fucking cardigan,” Taako commented, reaching back into the pile of clothes he’d brought into the dressing room and trying on the blue cardigan.  
He inspected himself, with a long, pleated pink skirt that had gold overlay, light brown ankle boots, and a billowing white blouse, he felt pretty basic. Cute, but basic. 

“It’s a little Walmart-brand, but not too bad.”

Magnus groaned.

“Why did I agree to come clothes shopping with you again?” he asked. 

“Because Lup and Barry are busy with icky science stuff, Lucretia dresses like a grandmother, Davenport is out of town, and Merle would suggest 1,200 different Hawaiian shirts just to piss me off and I honestly do not have the patience to deal with that.”

“Julia might’ve been a better choice,” Magnus said. 

Taako enjoyed Julia -moreso than he enjoyed regular people, which wasn’t a lot. She was very nice and accepting of him, a condition he was sure Magnus had talked about prior to them ever getting married. However, Taako didn’t need to put it into words how uncomfortable he was with Julia still when it came to one-on-one interactions. Even after two years of them being married, and oodles more years of them dating and being engaged, Taako already found it difficult to open his heart to others. Every day he woke up surprised that he still had the five he could call his friends. 

Lup didn’t count. She was his sister. 

Taako didn’t need to say anything aloud though. 

“So I was thinking about that black skirt with this top,” Taako said, moving the conversation along and turning back to the dressing room. He closed the door and stripped of the pink skirt. 

“What about those brown pants? What are you getting with those?” Magnus asked, noting that Taako had decided to change the subject. 

“I’ll probably get the striped pink shirt, with that denim jacket,” Taako said, remembering that he had brought those items into the dressing room and deciding to change into them next. 

“Don’t you already have a denim jacket?” Magnus asked, and Taako scoffed from inside the dressing room. 

“What a straight guy thing to say. You can _never_ have too many denim jackets.” 

“Thank you for the knowledge, O’ Taako Supreme.”

Taako opened the door and threw a shoe at Magnus. 

“Stop with the Taco Bell jokes!” 

Magnus laughed heartily as he was hit with the shoe. Nearly a decade of knowing each other wouldn’t stop Magnus from making them. 

“You have so much pink in your wardrobe,” Magnus commented off-handedly. 

“It’s my favorite color,” Taako said as he changed. “You know, Mags, you’d actually rock a pink v-neck or something,” he added, stepping out wearing the brown, fitted pants with the striped pink shirt. He added a grey, knee-length knitted jacket and it hung around his elbows as he stepped out. 

Magnus gave a thumbs-up to the outfit. 

“You think so? I thought brown was more my color,” he commented. 

“Once again, what a straight guy answer.”

“I’m a straight guy, what else can I say?” Magnus laughed. 

“Common misconception: you can still be straight and fashionable,” Taako said, walking back into the dressing room. Now it was time to try on the black fitted skirt. 

“Alright, I’ll try on a pink v, just because you insist.”

“Praise.”

After a few moments of silence - but not too many because Magnus Burnsides could not be quiet for too long if his life depended on it, Magnus spoke. 

“So?”

“So, what?” Taako asked, experiementing with the white billowy top and black fitted skirt. He stepped out to show Magnus. The burly brunet gave him another thumbs up. 

“So what do I owe the pleasure of getting to come shop with you?”

“I thought we already went over this,” Taako said. 

“No, but like. You always get this urge to shop when there’s something on your mind.”

Sometimes Taako really hated how well his friends knew him. 

“Nope, nothing at all. Just the usual,” Taako lied. Magnus squinted his eyes, not believing him, but ultimately let it go. 

“Okay, but just know that I’m always here to talk when you need it.”

“Thanks bubelah. I appreciate that.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again, friends! There have been some new updates!
> 
> First of all, I got a beta reader!!! They are amazing!! So big thanks and shoutout to [Cai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/localabyss) for beta'ing this chapter for me and being all around an awesome bean. 
> 
> Second of all, I will probably be moving updates to Sunday (not like I was updating regularly anyways), but that is still subject to change! It may be a bit earlier or later depending on what edits need to be made for chapters, yadda yadda. Quality is definitely more important than just churning out chapters, but we'll try to stick to a chapter a week!
> 
> **Trigger warning** : There is puking in this chapter, so if that makes you uncomfortable, you can stop reading at: “That’s just how Taako rolls. I can stop whenever,”

“That’s delicious, Lup,” Kravitz said, sampling the rich gyro that Lup made, a new creation that she was testing on Kravitz. In an effort to spark interest and add diversity, she suggested putting more items on the menu, and even recommended selling the gyro as a special to gauge interest. 

“It’s just a regular gyro, Krav. I figured you needed some on the menu.”

Kravitz nodded, before taking another delicious bite. “Just a regular gyro” was being modest. He hadn’t had one that had the palate of spices paired so well with creamy Tzatziki sauce. Lup was a culinary genius.

“Barry must be lucky if you cook like this all the time,” he said. Lup beamed.

“Oh, for sure, but he’s lucky to have me for other reasons too.”

“I’m definitely sure I don’t want to hear anymore,” he grumbled, causing Lup to laugh.

“Well, I’m sure it’s nothing you’re a stranger to, since you’re engaged and all,” Lup said, wiggling her eyebrows.

At that moment, the door swung open. It was still off-hours so Kravitz turned to tell the person they were closed and saw Taako.

“What are you doing here?” Lup asked, leaning across the bar.

“I’ve got a comp ticket for a live show this weekend, and I wanted to know if you were down to clown,” he told his sister, flashing the ticket.

“Is it Sunday?” Lup asked

“I’m closed,” Kravitz said, interrupting, but ultimately going ignored.

“Saturday,” Taako responded, still directing his conversation to Lup. 

“Boo, I’m going with Barry to take river samples that day,” Lup pouted.

“Uh, that sounds totally boring. Why trench through gross water when you could be doing something hella rad?”

“I’m _closed_ ,” Kravitz said a little more insistently. Taako was becoming a regular, but not so much of a regular that he could traipse around the bar during off hours without a good reason. And as of now, Taako didn’t have a good reason.

“Because I love Barry, and when Barry gets that dopey look on his face about studying water bugs, I trench through gross water, fam.”

Taako grimaced and turned to Kravitz.

“What about you, big boy? Wanna come watch Taako do what Taako does best?”

“I know this may surprise you, but when I’m not working the bar, there’s other things I have to handle,” Kravitz said, but without malice. “And for the last time, I’m closed, so you have to leave.”

“Hachi machi, what’s with the cold shoulder? Handle whatever you have before Saturday, come to my show, and I’ll even bring the after party here!”

“You’re bringing the after party here? You hate me,” Lup said, walking back into the kitchen. “My brother is trying to kill me!” she shouted, after passing the door.

“No.”

“If you say ‘yes’, I’ll leave,” Taako chimed, waving the comp ticket in the air.

Kravitz gave Taako an exasperated look.

“That’s not how this- look, I don’t know,” Kravitz said, though the idea of maybe taking a break before work sounded nice. “What time would it be done?”

“Before you open, guaranteed.”

Kravitz pondered.

“There’s a free sampling of all the shit I make. It’ll blow your fucking mind,” Taako added in a sing-song voice.

“Very tempting but I have things I need to take care of here to prepare for the bar to open,” Kravitz said.

“No you don’t,” Lup commented, reappearing behind Kravitz and making the man jump slightly. “I know your system, I can get everything set up while you’re away.”

“But-“

“No ‘buts’. You literally have no more excuses to not go,” Taako said, shoving the ticket in his vicinity. “It’s this Saturday at noon. Show up at 11:30 and they’ll let you in the VIP section.”

It wasn’t that Kravitz didn’t want to go, but it definitely felt like he would be shirking on his duties. And especially after what Eileen said a while ago, he wasn’t sure he trusted Lup to set up without his supervision.

“I’ll literally handle everything here, boss, don’t you trust me?” Lup said.

“Not as far as I can throw you,” Kravitz sighed. It’d been nearly four months now since Taako began coming to the bar, and nearly three since Lup started working there. He was indeed gaining a shaky trust in them, only because despite their pranks and insane antics, they never failed to deliver.

“Rude, and after all we’ve been through.”

“Don’t take it as an insult Lup, I bet Krav is jacked under those long sleeves,” Taako joked. “He could probably throw you pretty far.”

“Fine. I’ll go,” Kravitz said, rolling his eyes, agreeing only if it meant Taako would come back during normal business hours for the Raven’s Nest.

Taako beamed.

“You won’t regret it, homie. I’ll see you then.”

Taako left after that, and Kravitz locked the door after him, chastising himself for not locking it after him when he came in.

“Lucky man, you’ll get to see Taako’s show,” Lup said with a Cheshire grin, leaning against the bar.

“Only because he insisted,” Kravitz responded, returning to cleaning glasses. “Do you have the kitchen order for the next few weeks?”

Lup sighed before standing up straight.

“Does anyone ever tell you that you’re really uptight, Krav?” she said before going back to grab the list.

“My name is Kravitz,” he responded.

She returned with the list from the kitchen. “My point exactly.”

Kravitz looked over the ingredients list, and smiled. Since hiring Lup, he spent less money on ingredients. Before, Buddy had been stocking the kitchen like he was expecting the apocalypse to come, but Lup was sensible, and took into account the amount of food sales they had daily and used that information to make rational decisions on food purchasing. She was a god send.

The door chimed again, and Kravitz knew it had to be another key holder since he just locked the door, and when he looked up, he was delighted to see his mother, an austere looking woman with her salt and pepper braids woven into a large bun on her head.

“Holy shit, is that Angela Bassett?” Lup asked, her mouth agape at the woman. Kravitz gave her a sharp look.

“Mother, it’s so nice to see you,” Kravitz said when he turned his gaze to her, not answering Lup’s question. “To what do I owe this visit?”

His mother looked over Lup before turning back to Kravitz, making no indication on her face that she took stock of Lup’s presence.

“Eileen has told me that you made a new, risky hire. I’ve come to ascertain her viability.”

“Woah, okay, walking-“

“Certainly,” Kravitz said, cutting off whatever quip Lup was going to make. “Lup would you return to the kitchen to await my mother’s order?”

Lup did so after clicking her tongue.

“A bit mouthy. Did you pick her up off the street?” his mother asked, and the question rattled Kravitz. The idea of her being disappointed by any of his decisions had kept Kravitz from stepping out of line, and now his gut told him to regret his faith in Lup.

But then he remembered her prowess in the kitchen, and stood firm in his decision.

“When you taste her food, you’ll understand why she’s here,” Kravitz said, pouring his mother a glass of wine.

“I sure hope so. I want the shrimp salad.”

Kravitz wrote the order down and placed it in the window, where Lup took it and began preparing the order.

“How is work?” Kravitz asked.

“It’s fine. I’ve had some particularly difficult clients, but nothing I can’t handle.”

Kravitz’s mother was well-known in law circuits as one of the best prosecuting attorneys of her generation. She had been eager for Kravitz to follow in her path, but the judicial system just wasn’t for him.

“How have things been with Eileen?” she asked, her dark eyes giving him a piercing look. That steely gaze would make others crack and crumble, but Kravitz had grown up with it, and knew she was simply inquisitive.

“Good, we make time to spend time together, and we’re going to meet with a florist for the wedding next week.”

“Good,” his mother said, taking a sip of her wine, and Kravitz buzzed with the praise.

They didn’t spend too much time talking, but that was customary, and Lup brought out the food quickly.

“Well, that was fast, let’s hope it’s good,” Kravitz’s mother said, picking up her fork. Lup opened her mouth to say something but Kravitz stopped her.

“Lup, could you grab me more lemons from the fridge?”

Lup huffed but turned to do as she was told. As Kravitz’s mother took a bite, she couldn’t help but hum in appreciation.

“I must say, this is delicious.”

“You bet it is!” Lup shouted from the kitchen, and Kravitz laughed a bit nervously.

“I trust in her culinary skills entirely.”

His mother nodded and finished her salad quickly but diligently. Afterwards, she took out her purse and began writing a check.

“Mother, you don’t need to pay for it,” Kravitz started.

“It’s for you,” she said, with a tone that demanded no argument, and Kravitz shut his mouth.

She wrote him a check for $1,500.

“Thank you,” Kravitz said a bit in disbelief.

“As you prepare for your wedding, you’ll notice a lot of expenditures that will pile up. This should help a little,” she said, pushing her purse on her shoulder. “Good job with your new chef, but teach her some manners before I see her next.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

A smile crossed her stony features, and Kravitz felt joy well up inside of him.

“Bye, Kravitz.”

“Bye, mother.”

Kravitz put the check in his pocket, making a mental note that he would have to deposit it later today or tomorrow. Lup walked out of the kitchen now that the bar was empty again.

“Your mom seems like a real jerk,” she said, and Kravitz prickled at the criticism.

“She just has high standards.”

“Whatever,” Lup said flippantly, and Kravitz sighed, knowing that there wouldn’t be anything about her manners that he would be able to change. 

“I’m going to be invited to your wedding, right?” she asked with a sly smile, one that made Kravitz think she had devious plans.

“Of course. I’ll make you cater it,” Kravitz responded. 

“You’re the fucking _worst_.”

***

With the extra money his mother had given him, Kravitz decided to splurge and take Eileen shopping. It was the least he could do after his mother showed him such generosity. She may not be perfect, but she supported him and his dreams and worked her hardest to create a life in which Kravitz would succeed.

And part of that life meant growing closer with and marrying Eileen. He rarely said “no” to his mother, after all.

Kravitz noticed that Eileen tended to be on the more fashionable side, while remaining pretty modest. Fashion wasn’t something Kravitz had a vested interest in, but he went out on a limb and offered to take her shopping as a way for them to get to know each other better. Nearly a year into their engagement, and Eileen still felt like a stranger. 

Kravitz knew she liked to run, and participated in marathons, and he knew that she didn’t drink. Eileen tried to be as accommodating as possible, and would rarely disagree with Kravitz, asking him for his opinion first and following whatever he suggested. It was a little traditional, and definitely rubbed Kravitz the wrong way, but as long as he was deliberate in making sure she voiced her opinion as well, their partnership felt a little more equal.

Walking around the downtown area was nice, if not a bit cold because of the winter chill. They made sure to bundle up, but they could still feel the wind biting through their layers. 

Eileen ducked into a small boutique, the third one they’d been to, and Kravitz followed.  
She had yet to find anything she wanted, preferring finer taste and letting a quiet disdain show at the options she was given. It was definitely a new development for Kravitz, who not only didn’t understand women’s fashion, but also didn’t get the hype of shopping. He didn’t really know how to feel about her scornful opinions.

Without thinking, his hand went to the small of her back as they bustled into the boutique, and Eileen shied away from his touch, an action that Kravitz was disappointingly used to with her. But neither of them said anything about it as Eileen walked over to a rack to begin her search.

“These are just as bad as the last ones,” she sighed, and Kravitz furrowed his eyebrows.

“Maybe you could try something on. It might look nicer when it’s not on a hanger,” Kravitz suggested, pulling out a blush pink fitted dress. “This would look nice.”

Eileen giggled softly, but despite the gentleness of her action, Kravitz felt the hot flash of embarrassment run through him.

“Pink is definitely not my color.”

They continued shopping, and Kravitz tried to brush off the unpleasant experience, starting to regret bringing Eileen out. But he attempted to shake that off as well; he just needed to stay positive and trust in his mother’s decision about Eileen.

Later that night, Taako came in, per usual, and Kravitz made him a Cosmopolitan to be ready when he sat at the bar.

“Alone tonight?” Kravitz asked, noting that no one else came with him. It was a Friday night so he would’ve expected more of his newfound friends to come in.

“Yeah, but you can always change that if you want,” Taako said with a wink. Kravitz rolled his eyes.

“I can’t with you,” Kravitz said before a pair of girls – a blonde and a brunette, asked for some tequila shots. He asked to see their IDs and verified that they were old enough to drink before serving them.

“Oh my gosh, thanks so much,” one of the girls said with a giggle, before clinking the glass with her friend and throwing back the shot. “I’m trying to get white girl wasted, you know what I mean?” she asked, looking for validation from the others. Kravitz gave a weak smile and Taako just ignored them.

“Oh my gosh, are you _Taako_?” the blonde asked.

“The one and only,” he responded a bit bemused.

“My mother like, _loves_ your show, could I take a picture with you?”

Taako, used to this kind of star treatment, leaned in to get a selfie with the girl, and she giggled when she reviewed it.

“Thanks so much!”

“Could we have some Lemondrops?” the brunette asked, and Kravitz pondered for a while on whether they had pre-gamed or not before making them another drink.

They walked away with their cocktails to go sit at a booth where they talked lowly.

“Someone seems excited about Friday night,” Taako commented, taking another sip of his drink.

“It’s not unusual. I do run a bar after all,” Kravitz said, wiping down where he spilled pouring drinks.

Other people kept flitting up to the bar, and Taako did a good job of not distracting Kravitz too much from his work, something that Kravitz was actually pleasantly surprised about. The two younger girls ended up hanging at the bar, flirting lightly with Kravitz as he worked. Kravitz could tell that their efforts were serious, and told them about his engagement to Eileen, which did nothing to stop them.

Taako couldn’t help but judge them a tad.

At least his flirting was just playful banter, and not actually any attempt to get at Kravitz.

Realizing that their efforts weren’t going anywhere, the two girls began to talk together, letting Kravitz get back to work. 

“You know, Krav, you don’t have to put up with people just because they’re customers. If those girls make you uncomfortable, tell them to stop,” Taako said, resting his chin in his palm and leaning on his elbows. It was rare for him to say something so serious, and Kravitz didn’t know how to react to it. 

“From the guy who seems to do nothing but flirt with me and occasionally skip out on his tab, that’s pretty rich,” Kravitz said, but his smile let Taako know that he wasn’t seriously put out by it. 

“That’s just how Taako rolls. I can stop whenever,” Taako responded, grinning widely. 

Completely without warning, the brunette vomited, getting the substance all over the bar and interrupting Taako and Kravitz’s conversation. Kravitz took a careful step back to avoid getting it on himself and Taako jumped from his seat in disgust.

“Oh shit,” her friend said, trying to straighten her up. Despite the fact the brunette was just speaking coherently moments ago, she groaned and upheaved more contents of her stomach.

“Taako, watch the bar,” Kravitz said without thinking, walking around the bar to grab the girl. He helped her to the single, family bathroom in the bar, leaving the door open as he let her spew into the toilet. On the way to the bathroom, the girl puked again, getting the nasty substance on Kravitz and in his hair as he helped her.

Taako grimaced at the mess all over the bar, and resisted the urge to gag. The girl had drawn quite the crowd, and her friend stumbled to the bathroom, also obviously drunk, and told Kravitz she’d take care of her.

“Call a friend or an Uber, but you both need to go home,” Kravitz said in a stern voice, and the blonde nodded.

Kravitz looked down at his clothes, and scowled. Luckily he had a change of clothes in his back office. But he would have to leave the bar unattended.

“Taako, get Lup out here,” Kravitz said, still a bit aggravated.

“Y’know, Krav, if you weren’t covered in actual vomit, I’d think you were pretty hot right now,” Taako commented with a sly smile, before going to the kitchen and pushing open the door, calling for his sister.

As she walked from the kitchen, Kravitz pointed to the mess on the bar and walked to his office to change clothes.

“What did I tell you? He gives orders like he was made for it,” Lup said, as she went to their storage closet to get cleaning materials. 

Taako couldn’t fault her logic on that one, and returned to his seat at the bar to keep lookout for Kravitz.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again everyone! 
> 
> Thank you so much for your comments and kudos! They warm my heart when I log in and see them
> 
> And thanks again to [Cai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/localabyss) for their wonderful edits and advice!

Kravitz felt relieved when Saturday finally rolled around, but as he pulled into the venue's parking lot, he already started regretting his attendance. Parking was a bitch to find, it was like everyone and their mothers wanted to see Taako, and he found himself waiting in a line that he wasn’t sure he was supposed to be standing in.

“Yo, Kravitz!”

He turned towards the booming voice and felt a bit of relief at seeing Magnus. He was dressed in black, with a shirt saying “Security” written across the front.

“I thought you were a carpenter,” Kravitz said, ignoring the looks of others staring at him.

“Taako hires me for security for his gigs. It’s a good job for me and the money is nice. Aren’t you his plus one? What are you doing waiting in the admissions line?”

Kravitz shrugged his shoulders and held his hands out in the universal sign for “I don’t know”.

“Let’s get you to where you need to go,” Magnus said, and clapped Kravitz on his shoulder.

Praise Magnus.

Magnus escorted Kravitz to Taako’s private trailer. In light blue cursive lettering, was the words “Sizzlin’ It Up” and under it, in smaller text: “with Taako”.

“Does Taako have a last name?” Kravitz asked out of the blue, breaking the silence. He remembered Eileen’s worries, and that Taako’s card never listed a last name either.

“You’ll have to ask Taako,” Magnus said, and something about the way he answered made it seem a little ominous. They reached the trailer and Magnus opened the door.

“Taako, I brought Kravitz!” Magnus shouted into the trailer. 

Kravitz could clearly see that this was a space that belonged to Taako. There was a flair for the dramatic, with art and self-portraits hanging on the walls. The trailer wasn’t very big, and behind a door in the back, Kravitz could assume was a bedroom. In the main area there were plush, vibrant colored couches facing each other. On one couch, Taako was seated, looking a bit irritated and guarded at the woman who sat across from him, who seemed frazzled and exasperated. 

Kravitz assumed that maybe the conversation wasn’t going so well, but when he stepped into the trailer, Taako smiled and seemed a bit relieved.

“Oh good! I was starting to think you wouldn’t make it,” Taako commented. He was dressed in standard culinary garb, seemingly ready for his show. 

The woman inside the trailer also looked up at Kravitz, and made a move to stand up leave. She was dressed smartly and holding a pen and pad, and Kravitz felt a little bad for interrupting. 

“Should I wait outside?”

“No, no, come in!” Taako insisted, scooting on his couch and patting the space beside him. Kravitz and the woman both looked a little uncomfortable, but Kravitz did as Taako suggested. “And please, Kate, take a seat, your efforts aren’t for nothing.”

“Hello,” Kravitz said kindly, and the woman - Kate, waved.

“Ms. Kate wanted to interview me, but I told her there wasn’t any information you couldn’t just look up online, so instead, I figured she could interview you, Kravitz!”

“Me?” Kravitz asked stunned. He wasn’t prepared to do an interview.

“I don’t think my company would appreciate that,” Kate commented, shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

“Sure they will,” Taako turned back to the woman. “Kravitz is a good friend of mine, and he owns a bar called the Raven’s Nest. I always go there for drinks, and recently, my sister started working in his kitchen.”

Kate had a moment when she realized that Kravitz wasn’t just a random stranger, but had a connection with Taako, and her pen began flying across her paper.

“How long have you own the Raven’s Nest? I’m sorry, what was your name again?”

“Kravitz Astra.”

“Spell that for me.”

Kravitz looked over to Taako who just nodded.

“K-R-A-V-I-T-Z, A-S-T-R-A. And I’ve only had the bar for two years. I am the sole bartender and manage the entire place with my mother, Raven Astra. I hoped to make a cozy environment for people to come and shed their worries and inhibitions so they could be themselves.”

“And when did Taako start coming to your bar?” she asked, while still writing.

“A few months ago,” he said, looking to Taako for clarification. The chef was lounging, taking a swig of water and nodded. “He came in for drinks, and I had to get on to him a couple times because he wouldn’t pay his tab.”

“Hey!” Taako shouted, aghast, as if Kravitz wasn’t supposed to share the truth. 

“It’s true,” Kravitz said, and Kate took it all down. “But he really helped turn my kitchen around. I had another chef-“

“A cook, at _best_ ,” Taako interrupted.

“I had another _cook_ ” Kravitz started, giving Taako a pointed look, “and Taako ordered some food, complained about it, and then refused to pay his bill.”

“I was boycotting the atrocity,” Taako explained. All the while, Kate was furiously writing.

“So I got mad. At this point, I didn’t know who Taako was, and I told him that if he wanted to complain, he should try and do better.”

“Oh wow,” Kate gasped. “Did he?”

“Of course,” Taako said. “Lup and I went into his kitchen and shook things up.”

“That’s amazing,” Kate said incredulously.

“He comes in every week, and can be a real pain in the ass since I have to keep reminding him to pay his tab-” Kravitz started, and he took a pause.

Kravitz could tell Taako was actually a cool person by his bonds with his friends, which were all relatively trustworthy, and the persistent yet endearing way he’d wormed his way into Kravitz’s life. Business had been improving since Taako’s appearance, and because of Lup’s presence in the kitchen, and he couldn’t pretend it wasn’t because of Taako’s purposeful actions.

“-but he’s a good friend,” he finished, wondering if he even had the right to call them friends. There was an uncomfortable and nervous flutter in his heart as he realized he may have jumped the gun, and the surprise on Taako’s face didn’t help.

But then it was gone, and he was slinging his arm around Kravitz’s shoulders.

“Yeah, we’re great friends.”

***

The show was phenomenal. Kravitz didn’t know that food could be handled so masterfully, and despite Taako’s young age, he seemed to have decades’ worth of experience. He knew from Lup’s application when she started the job, that both twins were only 26, which seemed much too young to Kravitz for Taako to be so skillful. Taako also had an assistant, Sazed, who seemed a bit younger than Taako. He was dressed in similar culinary garb, but his uniform was a light pink instead of pure white. He had cropped, sandy blond hair, and despite his importance with measuring ingredients and fetching items, Kravitz had never heard Taako talk about him.

Sazed also worked wonders with preparing food and helping around the kitchen, and soon into the show, Kravitz found himself taking notes on not the food, but the abilities of both chefs, and the equipment they used.

And when Taako passed out samples of the chicken parmigiana pasta, Kravitz nearly cried.

He’d had chicken parmigiana pasta before, but not like _this_. Taako’s skills were dangerous, as he felt his heart warming to the chef just for cooking such a delicious dish. It must have been some sort of witchcraft.

“Come visit me and my friend Kravitz at his bar the Raven’s Nest at 8!” Taako shouted into the mic to applause.

Taako had gotten dropped off for his show, so Kravitz obliged in giving him a ride back to the bar, and the whole way, Kravitz realized he hadn’t been so excited about something in a while. 

He couldn’t quit chattering about how interesting it was to watch Taako cook, and how delicious his food was. He didn’t notice Taako opening and closing his hands.

“Yeah, it’s almost like I’m a professional,” Taako said smartly, and Kravitz rolled his eyes.

“Things like that normally aren’t my cup of tea, so I was surprised I got so invested.”

“Well, get used to it, we’re friends now,” Taako responded, patting Kravitz on the shoulder, and the bartender warmed at the contact, laughing.

Pulling into his own parking spot behind the bar, he wasted no time in getting inside and checking to make sure Lup hadn’t burned the whole place down.

“What’s up, boss?” Lup said from behind the bar when they walked in. “How was the show?”

“Excellent,” Kravitz said.

“As always,” Taako added, sitting at a barstool.

“Well, you seem like you may have removed a bit of that stick from your ass, so that’s good,” Lup said.

“He likes the stick in his ass, Lulu,” Taako joked, before high-fiving his sister.

“Haha, so funny,” Kravitz said dryly, fed up with the twins’ antics and jokes at his expense. But nevertheless, he knew he would be stuck with them as long as Lup worked in his kitchen and Taako hung around. “Lup, are you prepared for the after-party?”

“Oh, please, this isn’t my first rodeo. You do remember I’m Taako’s sister right?” Lup said, rolling her eyes.

Kravitz began polishing glasses before realizing that they all looked pristine. His bar had been fully set up and cleaned for him to come into work.

“I already took care of everything, Krav, I told you I would.”

“Did you replace the ice?” he asked, a little bit in disbelief.

“Of course. What do you take me for, an amateur?”

“If Lup weren’t so insistent on being a boring housewife, she’d definitely be on the road with me,” Taako said, leaning over the bar.

“I’m not even a housewife, I just help Barry out with his research,” Lup responded, rolling her eyes.

“Thank you, Lup, I really appreciate it,” Kravitz said, checking his watch. They still had a few hours until they were going to open. That’s when shit would really hit the fan.

Kravitz took that extra time to clean things that normally didn’t get cleaned, like the space behind the mini fridge behind the bar, and he meticulously cleaned around all the booths and tables. All the while, he chatted with Lup and Taako.

Antics and jokes aside, Lup and Taako were genuinely nice people, and Taako seemed a little devoted to helping his bar grow. That much was certain by the amount of people that came into the bar that night. 

That night, amidst the swarm of people, Kravitz realized that his life was changing, and in ways definitely for the better.

***

Taako was fucked. Severely and utterly _fucked_.

He rode back with Magnus from the after-party and after having a couple of drinks, he made an admission he promised he would keep to himself.

“You have a crush on _Kravitz_?” Magnus asked in disbelief. “Holy shit.”

“Uggghhh, Mags, don’t even talk about it, like literally just let it disappear from your brain,” Taako groaned, rubbing his numbed face with his hands.

“Definitely not now that you’ve told me,” Magnus said, as he turned right on a street on his way to Taako’s.

The chef groaned again.

“You already know what I’m going to say,” Magnus started.

“Yeah, that he’s engaged. I know. Trust me, I only think about it every time I see his stupid, pretty face, or hear his stupid, pretty voice.”

Magnus stayed silent for a moment.

“When’s the last time you had a crush on someone?” he asked.

“Like, a couple years. I haven’t had the time to be interested in people but Kravitz just kinda showed up and now I don’t know what to do.”

It was a rare moment when Taako was admitting weakness and being vulnerable, and it only really happened with Lup, Magnus, and Merle. Not even Lucretia, Barry, or Davenport saw many of these more vulnerable moments, Taako had too much self-preservation than to rely on lots of people like that.

“Well, I think it would help if you stopped going to the bar,” Magnus said. “Which sucks because he actually sells some pretty good IPAs on tap.”

“But Lup works there and I don’t want to stop going to the bar. He said we were friends!”

Magnus clicked his tongue.

“Well, that certainly makes things complicated,” he said.

Taako didn’t have many friends. Hell, Taako didn’t like enough people to want to make friends, so when he actually had a friend? It was a momentous thing, and Magnus, who had been privy to the details of Taako and Lup’s upbringing, knew how important the social family they made was to them.

“Yeah, you know I only have like 6 friends, and being famous doesn’t make finding them even better,” Taako complained. “But I’ll think about it. I have to get over my crush one way or another.”

“That’ll be for the better. It’s not good to have a crush on your friends anyhow.”

Taako hated when Magnus was right.

When Magnus dropped Taako off, Taako wasted no time getting out of the car, not wanting to endure a long-winded lecture from his overly verbose friend. When he got to his room, he shut the door, leaning against it and sighing heavily, before turning into bed for the night.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I hope you've all had a lovely week!
> 
> As always, big thank you to [Cai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/localabyss) for being such an awesome beta reader and friend!!
> 
> This chapter is a bit of filler, but I definitely wanted to show a little bit of Merle. 
> 
> Comments and kudos are highly appreciated!

“Merle?” Kravitz asked in shock when he walked through the doors to Pan’s Sanctuary, the best known garden nursery and florist in town.

The exterior of the shop had all sorts of perennial plants that loved sunlight. Daisies, zinias, hibiscus, and many other flowers stretched for yards in the sun, available for sale individually or per lot, and under a large awning, hydrangeas, violets, and other shade-loving flowers were misted with overhead sprinklers. Surrounded by the flora made Kravitz feel like he was in some mystical place, but the biggest surprise was Merle, pruning some flowers while talking lowly to the buds.

“Hey! It’s Kravitz,” Merle said, standing up and turning from where he’d been caressing a carnation.

Eileen looked between the two of them.

“You know each other?” she asked, with a bit of a smile on her face.

“Yeah, he comes into the bar every now and then. He’s friends with Taako.”

Eileen’s smile became a little strained at the mention of Taako. “Ah.”

“It’s been a while Kravitz. How has everything been?” Merle asked, wiping off his hands and holding out his left hand to shake. Kravitz thought it was a little strange, but when he looked to Merle’s right hand, he noticed prosthetic fingers sticking out under his jacket.

“It’s, uh, been good. We’ve had more customers and have been making more profit. After the wedding, if things keep going this way, I might make some much needed upgrades to the bar.”

“That’s good! I assume since you mentioned a wedding, you’re looking for some wedding floral arrangements?” Merle asked, looking between the two of them with a smile.

“We are,” Eileen said. “We know that your work is highly recommended and we only wanted the best.”

“You flatter me,” Merle said with a laugh, turning on his heel to walk towards the building attached to the flower nursery. “I would still be a small business if it weren’t for Taako, to be honest.”

“Really?” Kravitz asked, following him.

“Oh, yeah, are you kidding me? I was barely making rent before, but once Taako started touring and getting pretty famous, he gave me a few endorsements and did some collaborations, a couple months later, I had more money than I knew what to do with!”

The story sounded pretty familiar.

“Taako sounds like a generous guy,” Eileen said as they walked through the door to the florist space. Arrangements of all kinds were exhibited on counter and ornamental pedestals for display. All the arrangements boasted organic, locally-grown flowers from in house. It was what made Pan’s Sanctuary stand out as a sustainable business.

“Yeah, well, he likes to help his friends. I think deep down he doesn’t think he deserves them and is looking to hold on to them as much as he can.”

Kravitz felt touched at that idea, and a little sorry for Taako, and then there was an awkward silence.

“Whoops, didn’t mean to make everything gloomy! We’re here for flowers. Tell me what you guys were looking for?”

“I like hydrangeas,” Eileen said. “I thought some purple and blue ones might look nice with white flowers.”

“A good choice! And pretty traditional too. I actually have a book,” Merle said before leaning back to look under the counter. He pulled out a book labeled “Hydrangea Weddings” and opened it. “You can see some of my work and see if anything catches your eye.”

Eileen’s eyes sparkled as she leaned over the book. This was definitely more her thing than it was Kravitz’s. Not that Kravitz wasn’t looking forward to being married, but he felt it was simply his due diligence and duty to marry Eileen. He knew his mother, despite her stoic countenance, was elated about seeing her son wed, and Eileen was over the moon about it, so he fed off of their excitement more than looking to find it himself. 

“I like these the most,” Eileen said, pointing to a lovely picture of a centerpiece and matching bridal bouquet.

“A great choice!” Merle said, sliding out the pictures. “I have a wonderful set of hydrangeas and paired with some baby’s breath they would look just perfect.”

“And you use flowers from in-house, correct?” Eileen asked when she looked in more detail at the pictures. “I know of some people who end up with...mishaps because flowers are outsourced and may not make it in time, or aren’t the best quality.” 

Kravitz hadn’t expected Eileen to ask such a direct question, but he turned to Merle as well, and the florist simply smiled at them. 

“Oh, of course. I cut out a lot of the cost and hassle from floral arranging by also growing my own flowers. I’ve just found that it’s best when I know what inventory looks like, what flowers are in season, yadda yadda yadda,” Merle said, and Kravitz nodded his head. 

“What does the fee normally look like when you create bouquets for weddings?” Kravitz asked.

“You’d be surprised, but a lot of places will price gouge more for weddings just because they can,” Merle started. “I keep the same flat rate for all events, only charging more or less based on the types of flowers and how soon you would need them, et cetera. I also don’t have to pay to get flowers shipped to me. You can expect about $500-700 for hydrangeas and the works.”

“I knew we came to the right place,” Eileen said giddily, and Kravitz smiled. Seeing Eileen so excited about this made him feel like he was doing something right as a suitor, which only helped to make him a bit excited as well. 

His motivations and circumstances for getting married might have been a little different, but he would do his best to make it work.

***

“Yo Krav, lemme get those sweet digits,” Taako said, leaning over the bar later that night to get the bartender’s attention. One of the other patrons at the bar laughed at Taako.

“Uh, why?” Kravitz asked as he poured tonic water to make a Gin and Tonic. “And my name is Kravitz.”

“Because we’re friends! And friends should have each others’ numbers,” the blond said, crossing his arms over his white sweater.

“I don’t give out my number at work,” Kravitz responded, eyeing the people at his bar, and giving a cursory glance around the room. Man, he really needed another employee.

“This was a trust exercise, Krav, and you totally just failed,” the chef said as he pulled out his phone and texted someone.

“My sincerest apologies, Taako,” Kravitz added bemusedly, before walking to the other end of the bar to place a ticket in for food.

Later that night when Kravitz was closing with Eileen, he realized he had a text from an unknown number.

_From: Unknown_

_its taako, your easy breezy covergirl. got your number from lup_

Kravitz smiled. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to have correspondence with Taako, especially after having hung out with him outside of the bar now technically twice, and seeing him pretty regularly, but he had a precedence to follow of not giving out his number at work. Had Taako left his, he probably would’ve taken it, but he could imagine the blond wasn’t so stoked about writing his number down and leaving it somewhere for his fans to discover.

He responded.

_To: Taako_

_Cool. Sorry about earlier. Can’t have people think I’ll give them my number if they just ask._

“What is it, Kravitz?” Eileen asked as she helped him total up receipts.

“Nothing, Taako just texted me.”

Not more than a few minutes later, he felt his phone buzz from his pocket, but he kept working, making the executive decision to text Taako back after he finished.

By time he was done, it was nearly 5 am, and he read the text from Taako.

_From: Taako_

_oh no, i getcha my dude, no problemo. gotta keep that professional image_

Kravitz typed out a response, knowing that Taako wouldn’t answer it so early in the morning, but wanting to do so before he forgot.

_To: Taako_

_I figured you would understand, but I’m glad you got my number._

Surprisingly, his phone buzzed a few moments later.

_From: Taako_

_who wouldnt be???_

“Kravitz?”

Kravitz looked up from his phone to Eileen, who was waiting by her car.

“Yes?”

“Are we going to Waffle House?” she asked.

Kravitz weighed the options in his mind. He wasn’t very interested in going to Waffle House tonight, not that he was overjoyed to do it every other night, but he usually did his part for their engagement.

“Um, not tonight, sorry, I should probably head to bed,” Kravitz said, and something about Eileen’s features seemed relieved.

Kravitz wouldn’t think too hard on that though.

When he sat in his car, before turning it on, he texted Taako back.

_To: Taako_

_What are you doing up so early?_

Not too long after sending the message, his phone displayed Taako’s name as he received an incoming call, and Kravitz stared at his phone for a while before answering. 

“Hello?”

_“Kravitz, hello,”_ Taako said with a very awake and lilting tone. _”I’m driving so I figured I’d call. I’m on my way to the fish market.”_

Kravitz pulled out of his parking space and began to make the short drive to his place.

“Fish market?”

_”Oh for sure, the best fish is in the morning before it has to sit in the sun all day. Haven’t you ever been?”_ Taako said.

“Can’t say I have.”

Taako gasped on the other end of the line.

_“And you call yourself a bar that sells seafood? Tsk, tsk, Krav. Well, would you wanna go?”_

Kravitz pondered it for a moment. It would definitely be an experience, but he really needed to get home.

“I just left the bar, so I need to head home.”

_“Ah, cleaning?”_

“Well, we close at 3, and then it took a couple of hours to go through every receipt and match it with profit,” Kravitz explained.

_“What the hell, why do you do that? It only takes like 10 minutes to close out a register,”_ Taako exclaimed. Kravitz felt a bit embarrassed as he sighed.

“I don’t know how to do it on the newer register.”

There was a beat of silence before Taako responded.

_“You know, I don’t know whether to laugh, or be sad for you, Krav, because there’s a_ much _easier way to be doing it.”_

“I know, I know, but I just don’t trust it to give me the right numbers.”

_“Look Krav, I’ll meet you later today and we’ll set up your register. What time are you free?”_ Taako asked. Kravitz pulled into a parking spot in front of his apartment and got out of the car.

“Well, I have to actually clean the bar and wash the dishes and such, and that’s after sleeping. So maybe 2 pm?”

_“Jesus, Krav. Okay, I’ll see you then.”_

They said their goodbyes and Kravitz opened the door to his apartment building. He walked through the entry hall where his mailbox was, and followed it to the hallway and staircase, walking up the stairs to get to his studio apartment. After unlocking the door, he headed straight to his bedroom for much needed sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this is late! Things have been very hectic while I try to find a new apartment and get settled with a new job. 
> 
> I am extremely grateful to [Cai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/localabyss) as always for being such an awesome beta reader and keeping the standards high for each and every chapter!

Later the same day, Taako and Lup showed up to the Raven’s Nest to help Kravitz. Now that Kravitz considered them good enough friends to feel comfortable sharing his number with them, Taako and Lup were eager to help him. 

“Had I known he was using such an antiquated system, I’d have told his dumb ass off months ago,” Lup sighed as they pushed open the door.

Kravitz was sweeping when they came in.

“You ready to do this, bubelah?” Taako asked, and Kravitz smiled a bit tiredly. Keeping late nights tallying up all the receipts, and then waking up to clean wasn’t the best system for his sleep schedule. 

“Yeah, teach me your ways, youngster,” Kravitz responded jokingly.

“How old even _are_ you?” Lup asked, sitting at the bar.

“I’m 29,” Kravitz sighed, grabbing the dustpan and sweeping up the small pile he had accumulated.

“I like me an older man,” Taako commented slyly before walking behind the bar to fiddle with his register.

“Stop that,” Kravitz said, walking the dustpan to the trash can. Taako assumed that he was talking about his flirting.

“I wondered why you were always so busy. It’s because of your damn register,” Lup said, watching as Kravitz swept the floor.

Taako began tapping on the electronic screen, going through the options to close out the register.

“Good god, you’ve never closed this register before, have you?” he said, looking at the exorbitant amount of profit showing on the display. Kravitz walked over to where his register was, not feeling 100% comfortable with Taako working on it alone, but trusted him enough as someone who ran his own brand and business.

“Not since I got it. I keep a record of my profits in books in my office.”

Taako shook his head.

“Go get them,” he said, printing a long receipt from the register.

Kravitz debated for a moment before deciding to trust the twins alone. He walked back to his office and grabbed the notebooks he used to track profit and brought them to the front. Once he was there, he and Taako together went through the painstaking process of balancing out the profits from the register and his books. It took a couple hours, and Kravitz asked Lup to spearhead the cleaning while they worked. Surprisingly for Taako, the numbers matched up exactly.

“You take some pretty meticulous records, my dude,” Taako said, turning back to the register.

“I’m aware,” Kravitz said, a bit proud.

“So the next step is going to be leaving your baseline of cash in order to make change, and then setting the register to zero,” he began, walking Kravitz through the steps to making transactions properly on his register and then closing the transactions out to clear the register for the next day. Kravitz’s eyes were opened to how technologically efficient he could be.

“And so when you’re done, you take like, 10 minutes, close out your register by counting your cash against profits made on the register, and then you can spend those next hours cleaning and prepping for the next day.

That night when he closed the bar, he found that the new system was way easier than anything he could’ve imagined. Of course, when Eileen showed up to help close, it was chores Lup and Kravitz were engaged in, not totaling receipts. 

“Are we not doing receipts tonight?” she asked, when she saw Kravitz sweeping up some broken glass. 

“No, Taako and Lup helped me figure out how to get the new register working, so now it only takes about 5 minutes to close it out. You don’t have to help us with chores though,” he said, seeing how she was dressed in a black and white gingham fitted dress. 

She cracked a weak smile, that even Kravitz knew was phony. 

“Oh, that’s wonderful. Are we still having breakfast tomorrow?” she asked, her voice sounding a bit disingenuous. 

“Yes, dear,” Kravitz responded, and Eileen’s smile got a little more genuine with his answer. 

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said before leaving.

Because they would take care of cleaning at night, Kravitz’s days were now open, and with his newly discovered free time, Kravitz found that he could sleep in longer, and still have time to do other things, like browsing upgrades for the bar, and weighing pros and cons of hiring a new employee.

He also spent time with his new friends.

“So wait, you mean to tell me that when your mom asks you to do anything, you just do it?” Taako asked, placing his bubble tea down on the table.

“Nothing wrong with that,” Magnus commented, “that just means he cares about his mom.”

Kravitz nodded, feeling a little under fire from Taako, but knowing that it probably wasn’t as normal to be so obedient to a parent at his age. 

“She did a lot to take care of me, and sure, she isn’t perfect, but I try to do my best to be a good son,” Kravitz said, taking a sip of his tea. He didn’t know why they came here, but Magnus’ excitable personality made it hard to say “no” to his whims.

Taako just sipped on his drink, not commenting.

“So tell us about Eileen,” Magnus said, deciding to move the conversation along, before looking over to Taako to gauge his reactions.

Taako was good.

“Well, I met her a little over a year ago, and we seemed pretty compatible. She’s nice, and she tries to be supportive of the Raven’s Nest.”

“Tries?” Taako asked.

Kravitz deliberated for a moment, wondering if he should share in his small worries. 

“I don’t think she likes it that much, honestly. The hours are weird and she’s worried I’ll get hurt in a bar fight or something. She didn’t take well to me getting thrown up on the other night.”

“Valid,” Magnus said, eating another bite of his rolled ice cream. “But you’re living your dream. Maybe she’ll come around.”

It was currently just the three of them, and they decided to try a new Asian food café aptly named Asian Café for lunch.

It was alright. Taako hadn’t made any major complaints.

“I sure hope so,” Kravitz said, before deciding to change the subject. “So Taako, I wanted your opinion on something.”

“Hit me,” Taako said.

“I was contacted about hosting a kind of pop-up kitchen for a young chef looking to build clientele before opening a restaurant,” Kravitz explained, before drinking his tea. “My mother didn’t seem too keen on the idea, but I think it’d be great to help build the community, Lup seemed down too.”

“Hey man, look, listen. If Lup is down, then I’m probably, mostly 100% also down. So that’s your first indication. It definitely helps build community and whatever chef is going to come in is going to bring in more customers.”

Kravitz nodded.

“I’ll talk with my mother, and see if I can’t get her to come around.”

“Look dude, you’re like 30, you can make your own adult decisions that are pretty sound and chill. Your business partnership doesn’t have to look like a dictatorship,” Taako said, leaning back in his chair. “Just saying.”

Kravitz knew he was right. He was too old to not have a backbone. He made the mental note to speak to his mother about it.

***

It was rare that Kravitz held his ground with his mother, usually just relenting to whatever decision she felt was best, but he wasn’t going to back down on this decision, which resulted in a stare down between Kravitz and his mother.

“I just began trusting that chef you brought in, now you want to introduce another variable?” his mother asked, with her arms crossed. Her tone wasn’t sharp or critical, but Kravitz could tell she was disapproving of the idea of opening up the Raven’s Nest kitchen to a local chef. 

“Half of the food profits would go to us, and the other half the chef gets to keep. I’ll still be selling drinks so it isn’t like we lose too much profit, and Lup will be there to help out, just in case,” Kravitz reasoned. His mother’s hard stare made him consider backing down, but he remembered Taako’s assurance in this plan and stood strong. 

“Do you have a contract or application drawn up for this new chef?” his mother asked. 

“Yes,” Kravitz responded, feeling his heart soar a little with hope. 

“Let me see it,” his mother said with an outstretched palm. 

She deliberated over the contract, scanning through it quickly but critically, and Kravitz knew she was picking apart each word and seeing how legally binding the document was. 

“Fine,” his mother said after reading the document and a long moment of consideration. “How long will you be hosting this new chef, and what is their name?” 

Kravitz beamed, knowing that the victory of opinions was much sweeter because he had actually debated his mother for a while on opening up the kitchen. They began going over the details and later that afternoon, Kravitz sent a positively affirming e-mail to Cheyenne, the young chef looking to open a ramen shop. 

She would come in once a month on Sundays, and would use the kitchen with Lup’s help to create her own dishes and to help build her clientele. Kravitz made sure to promote the new chef coming in as much as possible in the weeks after confirming the details, spreading the word to all his customers and urging them to tell their friends as well.  
On the last Sunday of the month, Cheyenne walked in early with ingredients, and got to work immediately on getting Lup up to speed and prepping for potential customers. 

Kravitz looked over her menu and was impressed by how simple yet delicious Cheyenne marketed her food to be. 

There was a simple shoyu ramen that boasted a flavorful soy based broth and some high quality ingredients. There was the customer choice of protein, with the options being pork, beef, chicken, or tofu, and a myriad of toppings such as nori, green onions, eggs, and bamboo shoots to complement the noodles. 

A miso ramen was the second option, with a similar variety of customer choices, with notably fresh and high quality ingredients, but it was the third menu option that caught Kravitz’s eye the most, and that was a barbeque-style ramen. 

Combining flavors from the deep south and modernizing the traditional ramen dish, this ramen consisted of pulled barbeque pork and cooked collard greens over a bed of noodles along with corn and a soft boiled egg all served with a sweet and salty broth of Cheyenne’s own invention. The idea of it made Kravitz’s mouth water, but he didn’t have to wonder how it would taste as Cheyenne and Lup brought out three bowls of ramen from the kitchen nearly 30 minutes before they opened. 

“Here, Kravitz, I wanted all of us to try some so we knew what we were selling,” Cheyenne said, a smile adorning her face as she put down the bowls on the bar in front of Kravitz. 

“Yeah, Krav, dude, this is some of the most ballin’ ramen I have put in my mouth, you need to try this shit ASAP,” Lup said, sitting at the bar and digging into the shoyu ramen. 

Kravitz took a fork and sampled from the same bowl, humming in appreciation when the burst of flavor hit his mouth. 

“That’s really good, Cheyenne,” Kravitz complimented, taking another bite, engaging in a small battle of forks with Lup to get to a piece of pork. 

“Thank you. Try this one,” she said, sliding what must have been the barbeque ramen over to him, and Kravitz eagerly dug in, groaning in appreciation when the combined sweet taste of the meat and broth combined with the opposing saltiness of the dish. 

“That’s fucking delicious,” Kravitz said and Lup laughed at his lack of decorum. “I’m being serious!” he added.

“I’m most hopeful about that one,” Cheyenne said, hiding a smile behind her hand. 

The three of them ate from the three bowls in front, and with full bellies and satiated appetites, Kravitz opened the Raven’s Nest. 

He was not surprised at the least when Taako made his appearance an hour into the event, but he was pleasantly surprised to Lucretia and Davenport with him. 

“What’s cooking, my dude?” Taako said, walking up to the bar but not taking a seat. 

“Ramen. You should get some,” Kravitz said, passing a paper menu his way. Taako eyed the three items and their options over. 

“Lemme talk to my peeps and I’ll get back at cha,” Taako said, walking towards the table Lucretia and Davenport secured. 

The bar was relatively packed, and the feedback from the ramen seemed mostly positive, but of course, Taako’s opinion would be heavily impactful on how well Cheyenne did today. 

Kravitz walked over to the serving window and peered into the kitchen to the two working ladies. 

“Taako just walked in, I’ll let you know when I get his order,” he said, and Lup gave him a thumbs up. Cheyenne on the other hand, looked terrified and stood stock still for a moment before Lup nudged her with a smile. 

“He’s gonna love it,” Lup said genuinely. “Your food is the bomb dot com.”

Cheyenne cracked a weak smile before nodding and getting back to work. 

Kravitz felt a little bad at panicking her, but he knew she wouldn’t have anything to worry about. He didn’t know Taako’s tastes per se, but if Lup was feeling confident about it, then she had nothing to worry about. 

Plus the food really was delicious. 

When he walked back to the bar, he slid a whiskey sour over to an older gentleman before Taako walked up again. 

“We’ll take one of each please,” Taako said, passing back the paper menu. “How’s business been?”

“Good, the ramen is really popular,” Kravitz said, jotting down the order on a slip to give to the ladies in the kitchen. 

“Told you it’d be a good idea,” Taako said, leaning on the bar. Kravitz got to work making his Cosmopolitan. 

“What did Lucretia and Davenport want to drink?” Kravitz asked as he began pouring. 

“Davenport wants an Old Fashioned and Lucretia wants top shelf Chardonnay,” Taako responded, and Kravitz nodded,. 

He finished up Taako’s Cosmopolitan and took the food ticket in his hands. 

“I’ll get your order to the kitchen and your food should be out quickly. Give me a second on the drinks,” he said, taking the ticket to the kitchen. “Order up!”

He mixed Davenport’s Old Fashioned and carefully poured Lucretia’s wine, before delivering them to the table. 

“Enjoy, guys, and let me know if you need anything,” he said with a smile. 

“Thanks, Kravitz,” Davenport said, and Kravitz returned to his place at the bar. 

When Taako, Lucretia, and Davenport’s food came out, Kravitz felt a hint of nervousness for Cheyenne. He hoped that Taako would enjoy her food, especially because he fought to let her come into the kitchen. It was about Cheyenne, but also this represented one of his first decisions he made that wasn’t completely supported by his mother at first. It was a test, to see if Kravitz could run the Raven’s Nest independently.

Kravitz watched as the food was brought out to them, and as Taako took a bite of the barbeque ramen he ordered, holding his breath without realizing. When Taako took his first bite and nodded, Kravitz exhaled. 

He’d made the right decision opening up the kitchen to Cheyenne.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One day. In some universe. I will update consistently. 
> 
> Once again, so sorry for the delay! The apartment search and job training is literally kicking my ass, but it will be so worth it when I start in August and have my own place. I move in this weekend, so there definitely won't be an update. I'm trying guys!
> 
> As literally always, I appreciate [Cai's](https://archiveofourown.org/users/localabyss) help so much with this work, they are truly a great help and inspiration to me and help me keep this story top notch!

“You totally like-like him.”

The statement, coming from Merle, was a shocker. Merle hadn’t even spent a lot of time around Kravtiz, or Taako and Kravitz, and the accusation was a little too close to the truth for Taako’s liking.

“He’s hotter than hell, my dude, but that doesn’t mean I like-like him,” Taako rebutted, before sipping his drink. Kravitz made him something new to try, and Taako had to say, he was enjoying it. Magnus gave him a pointed look before sipping his own beer.

“Yeah, but you’ve thought guys were hot and didn’t try to help their businesses,” Magnus pointed out, and Merle nodded. It was just the three of them tonight, and while Taako was closest with the two of them, Lup excluded, he was feeling a little under fire, especially from Magnus, who he kicked under the table.

“But what’s wrong with that? I try to help your businesses too. Because we’re _friends_.”

“That’s true,” Merle said, “but you also don’t think we’re hotter than hell.”

“Merle, I don’t think any part of you is ‘hot’ anymore,” Magnus added, much nicer than what Taako was going to say. They all shared a laugh at that one, even if it was at Merle’s expense.

Since Taako had started visiting regularly, it was true that Kravitz’s bar was doing better. There were more people, and with more people, there was more money. Lup’s food did well too, and the celebrity presence always brought in a few diners, hoping to get a look at Taako. The impromptu interview that happened before his last show helped too.

And Kravitz’s drinks, as always, were delicious.

After the live show, Taako began hanging around a little more. He found that Kravitz didn’t really mind, and Taako suspected that his business had isolated him from most of the friends he used to have, not having time to see many of them. Eileen was the only exception, but besides her, Taako didn’t see Kravitz interacting with anyone else on what could be considered a “friendly” level. To top it all off, Taako knew about some of the same managing struggles Kravitz dealt with, even if his own brand didn’t have a brick and mortar location, and so they always had something to talk about. 

Taako knew it was a lost cause to have a crush on Kravitz, but he told himself he’d get over it, maybe take some other guys home and bury his feelings if he could find someone trustworthy enough to not blab to the press.

Yeah, that’s what he would do. Maybe. It’d make Merle and Magnus get off his ass. But he wouldn’t worry about it tonight, but told himself he’d find someone later, maybe when the time was a little more opportune.

“He’s sensible too. He came in a while ago for wedding arrangements,” Merle commented, taking a sip of his drink.

“Oh? What are they looking at?” Magnus asked, curious, as always, of what others were doing.

“Hydrangeas.”

Taako smiled. That would be pretty.

The other two left before him, and Taako took to waiting at the bar, drinking slowly while watching whatever cheesy black and white movie Kravitz had playing on his TV. He could’ve easily left with Magnus, but he felt like staying longer, which meant now he’d have to wait for Lup to get off so he could catch a ride. Hanging around after the other customers went home also meant that Kravitz could check him on closing his tab, which is what Taako told himself was the real reason he’d stay.

“Are you going to have another show soon, Taako?” Eileen asked. With the application of the register, she ended up not having much to do, as Taako didn’t want to give her cleaning work to do. He took care of it well enough with Lup, whenever she finished with organizing the kitchen.

“Maybe, I’m trying to take it easy before I start my tour,” Taako sighed.

“Tour? Where are you going?” Kravitz said, sounding genuinely surprised, and Taako was actually a little glad that Kravitz was so invested in what he was doing.

“I’m headed to the eastern seaboard. Gonna make some chowders. And eat crabs.”

“We’re going to miss having you around,” Kravitz said, and Taako couldn’t help the flip he felt in his stomach at the thought that Kravitz would miss him, but he swallowed it down and flashed a cheeky smile.

“Well, I am _me_ , after all.”

Eileen smiled at Taako before turning to Kravitz.

“Is the cider still selling well?” she asked.

“People enjoy it, even if it’s a bit out of season now. We ordered a little too much for winter, even with the recent surge in customers,” Kravitz said, cleaning up the counter. Eileen gave Taako a furtive glance.

“Well, darling, it’s getting pretty late. Do you think we should close up?”

“Isn’t that what we’re doing?” Kravitz asked, and Eileen gave him a look for just a moment.

“Well…” she said, leaving the rest of her statement hanging.

Taako resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

“I’d leave but I’m waiting on Lup since she’s my ride,” Taako said. Even when slightly intoxicated, he could tell when someone was trying to edge him out. He was perceptive like that.

Eileen actually looked a little embarrassed. Before squeaking out an “oh”.

“Yeah, don’t mind Taako,” Kravitz said.

There was an awkward silence before Taako got fed up with it and decided to slide off his barstool.

“I’m going to go check on Lup.”

Taako couldn’t lie and say he wasn’t just a little pissed about the rude attitude, as if he were some regular, run-of-the-mill customer. He was /Taako/ for Christ’s sake, and he had been coming here often enough to not deserve such a cold shoulder. He opened the kitchen door and stalked over to his sister.

“Uh-oh. Why are you mad?” Lup asked without Taako even saying anything. He hopped onto one of the counters. “Hey! I just cleaned that, don’t put your ass there,” Lup said, smacking him with a dish rag.

“My ass is pristine, thank you,” Taako commented.

He watched her prep for the next day a little before she spoke again.

“So, what’s up? Kravitz?”

“It’s not him,” he said, crossing his legs.

“The fiancée?”

“Yes,” Taako huffed, and Lup looked at him, and sighed, giving a long pause.

“Look, Taako. I know I’ve kinda been joking around about it, but I think you need to try to break out of this crush you have on Kravitz before it becomes an issue,” she said.

“Who are you telling? I’ll get over it,” Taako said. Lup pursed her lips, as if she didn’t believe him.

***

Kravitz hadn’t noticed it before, but as he was with Eileen shopping for bridesmaid and groomsmen apparel, he realized she was starting to act a bit differently. He chalked it up to stress, but when she would snap at him for making a suggestion, Kravitz couldn’t help but feel like his input in the wedding wasn’t being respected.

“Um. No. Anything glitzy on the dresses might be too distracting,” Eileen said, having cast a quick glance at the dress Kravitz was holding before turning to flip through a bridal catalogue.

Kravitz bit his tongue and put the hanger back on the rack.

“Okay, what are you looking at then?” he asked, sitting beside her on the couch the store provided and looking over her shoulder to peer into the magazine. 

“I was thinking more of this style with a baby blue color,” she said, pointing to one of the pages. The dresses were simple and modest, and didn’t seem to garner any attention. Kravitz just thought they looked okay at best. 

“What about that style?” he asked, pointing on the following page to a pencil dress with light embellishments. It looked professional and modest, but also looked nice on the models. 

Eileen sighed in response. 

“No. How about you just focus on finding suits for your groomsmen?” 

Her response made Kravitz’s heart drop, but Eileen smiled expectantly, so Kravitz stood up to walk towards men’s section. After a minute of perusing, his phone chimed. 

_From: Taako_

_whats up homie?_

_To: Taako_

_Looking for bridesmaid and groomsmen attire for the wedding. What about you?_

Kravitz thumbed through deep purple suits of varying sizes and pulled some off the rack to inspect them. Mainly he was searching in vain, since Eileen hadn’t even chose a color they were going with yet, and honestly, Kravitz would be just fine with all the men wearing a suit.   
His phone buzzed in his pocket again. 

_From: Taako_

_you know what lup did for her wedding was just have a color and have the bridesmaids and groomsmen wear that_

_the groomsmen all wore accents and the bridesmaids just got a dress they liked in that color_

Kravitz smiled. 

_To: Taako_

_That’s a great idea. I’ll pass it on to Eileen._

He tucked his phone back into his pocket and walked back to where Eileen was, feeling optimistic about the plan. 

“So I had an idea,” he started, and Eileen sighed. 

“Okay, throw it at me,” she said with a hint of exasperation in her tone. 

“What if we just choose a color and have the bridesmaids pick a dress that suits them in that color? We could have restrictions, like length and no jewels, and the men could just wear that color as well as an accent, like a vest or tie or suit jacket,” Kravitz explained. 

“No.”

Kravitz pursed his lips at her response. 

“Why?”

“Because that’s a dumb idea,” she said, before adding: “no offense”. 

Kravitz felt his irritation rise, but he told himself that Eileen just wanted this wedding to be perfect and that things would go back to how they were months ago once they actually got married. Kravitz was a patient man.

“Fine, just let me know when you pick out a color.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally am moved in!!! But I don't have internet at my apartment so I'm currently updating from a coffee shop.
> 
> Thank you all so much for your comments and kudos! It makes me remember why I'm writing this story in the first place, and that's so that all you lovely people can enjoy Taakitz. 
> 
> And thanks to [Cai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/localabyss) for always being such a glorious beta and a great friend!

Kravitz was very surprised when he got an invitation from Taako to go to a board game “night” to celebrate his upcoming tour. Board games weren’t necessarily his cup of tea, but he had been trying to spend more time with people with his newfound free time, and making new friends was something that he hadn’t done in quite some time. They also moved their regular time to the day so that Kravitz could still come before work. Not having to go in early to clean was excellent but was also still a little nerve-wracking, but they left enough time for him to have an hour or two to prepare with Lup.

The games were being hosted at Lup, Barry, and Taako’s house, and Kravitz knew it would be a lively event. He was told to bring the alcohol, since he was the one who should have the best “booze palate”, so he came prepared for some easy to make drinks and a couple of beers.

After seeing them in his bar for the first time, he had really felt like he grew a connection with these people. They all came into the bar often and all seemed invested in talking to him and involving him in their circle. Friends were a luxury that he never really afforded himself due to how hard he had to work for the Raven’s Nest, but he was beginning to realize that he needed a safety blanket of people to talk to.

The wedding preparations were going fine, but were still stressful, so this would be a good distraction from that. Despite it not being intentional, he’d started spending less time with Eileen, and got agitated by small things she would do, like touching the radio in his car without asking, or implying that she knew the thoughts in Kravitz’s head. Those things hadn’t been a problem until recently since the wedding preparations were getting a little more hectic, and when Kravitz tried to fall back on feelings for Eileen, he was realizing constantly that they didn’t run very deep.

But he told himself time and time again that things would be fine, and that he was on his way to a perfectly comfortable life with Eileen. And with his new friends, he knew there was nothing to fear because he had a support group.

As Kravitz pulled up to the house, he whistled low. There was a lovely front porch covered in various plants and flowers, and the house seemed like a decently sized two-bedroom place. Kravitz lived in a relatively nice apartment, but most times it felt more like a bachelor pad, even though he was engaged.

Kravitz was early, but he saw two cars in the car port so he assumed he wouldn’t be the only one there. He got out of his car, making sure to grab his bag of alcohol and mixers, and walked up to the front door, admiring the plants along the way.

“He can’t know we _live_ in this house, Barry!”

After working with her, he could pick Lup’s voice out in a crowd, especially because she had a similarly unique cadence to her voice as Taako did.

He didn’t hear the response, but then he heard the telltale sound of a vacuum and figured he’d wait for it to stop before he knocked. After a few minutes standing outside, looking at the plants, the vacuum cleaner stopped and Kravitz knocked.

“Shit, coming!”

Lup unlocked the door, and she beamed when she saw Kravitz.

“Krav! You’re here early,” she said, holding open the door.

Lup was wearing a yellow sundress with tights and brown ankle boots Kravitz was pretty sure belonged to Taako, since he saw him wearing the exact same pair a few days ago. Her long, blonde hair was pulled up in a bun.

“You look nice, Lup,” he complimented.

“So do you, holy shit look at your arms!”

Kravitz wore a light blue polo and realized that Lup had probably only seen him wear long sleeves since he insisted on wearing a white button down with a black vest at work.

“Barry! Come in here and look at Kravitz’s arms!”

“Why are we looking at his arms?” Taako asked as he walked in from the kitchen, shaking his hands dry from where he washed them.

Lup squeezed Kravitz’s bicep in disbelief. Taako oohed.

“Careful Krav, you could kill a man with those,” Taako said.

“Don’t be fooled by her fawning, Lup loves Barry’s dad bod,” a familiar voice said behind Kravitz, and he turned to see Magnus standing with a few board game boxes. They must have just gotten here. Lup put down Kravitz arm so that he could move and stop blocking the door, before walking over to Barry and giving him an affectionate hug and kiss on the cheek.

“I absolutely love his dad bod,” she said. Julia giggled behind Kravitz and they all came through the door.

“Gross,” Taako said, making a face, before Lup stuck her tongue out at him.

“Now we’re missing Davenport and Merle,” Barry said, after being successfully snuggled.

“Lucretia isn’t coming?” Kravitz asked.

“No, and it’s a good thing too, because she’s too fucking good at Clue,” Lup huffed.

“What’d you bring to drink?” Julia asked as Magnus went to deposit the games, curiously peeking at the bag slung on Kravitz’s arm.

“Oh, nothing much, just some stuff to make gin and tonics and Moscow Mules. I also brought some Blue Moons.”

“Hell yeah!” Magnus cheered.

“That’ll do,” Taako said, before returning to the kitchen. “Apps are on the counter, help yourselves.”

The group headed toward the kitchen.

“This is the best thing about these game nights being hosted here. The food is legendary,” Julia whispered.

Kravitz could tell just by walking in the kitchen. It hadn’t appeared that Taako went all out, but Kravitz’s mouth watered at the buffalo chicken dip that sat in a large baking pan.

“Aw shit, buff chick dip!” Magnus cheered, grabbing a plate and a fistful of chips.

There was another knock at the door, and Lup hurried to get it. At the door was Davenport, and he walked into the kitchen where he saw most of the people.

“Kravitz, nice to see you,” he said, with a wide smile.

“Same to you.”

“Taako made buff chick dip!” Magnus announced, already shoving his face full of food that he had piled on his plate.

“Speaking of buff chicks, have you talked to Killian lately?” Davenport asked Magnus.

“I talked to her last week. Why?”

“Did she tell you she bought the ring?” Davenport said.

“Shut up! She did not,” Julia gasped, and Kravitz felt thoroughly confused.

“Killian is a friend of ours. Crazy insane about Crossfit. She’s been thinking of getting engaged to her long-term girlfriend Carey for like, /ages/, and she finally bought the ring,” Taako filled in, leaning in to mumble into Kravitz’s ear. Kravitz nodded.

“She showed me pictures, yeah,” Davenport said to Julia, taking out his phone and showing the interested party the pictures. At that point, Kravitz used the opportunity to get himself some food and return to the dining room.

The night ended up going swimmingly, and Kravitz even won a game of Clue, despite not having played it in years. He was reluctant to leave, realizing it had been much too long since he did something this social outside of the bar, but his work ethic ultimately pulled him away with Lup, who had prep work to do.

Taako tried not to make it obvious to everyone that he was crushing on Kravitz, and made sure to sit away from him. Only Magnus and Lup knew his feelings, and Magnus only knew by accident. Merle was suspicious enough, but Taako just had to keep pretending there was nothing behind the curtain and eventually his feelings would disappear like they had before.

When Magnus and Julia were leaving, Magnus clapped Taako’s shoulder with a large hand and a knowing smile. It made Taako feel guilty. Kravitz was getting married and he was selfishly vying for him.

Later that night as he collapsed into bed, he fought off the urge to go see Kravitz at the Raven’s Nest, and fell into a shaky slumber.

***

Against his better judgement, Taako sent an early morning text to Kravitz, and eagerly waited for a response, biting his lip.

_From: Krav_

_Why are you up so early?_

Taako breathed a sigh of relief that he actually answered.

_To: Krav_

_im about to head out to get some fresh fish. wanna come?_

He didn’t know what answer to expect. He knew it was early, but he told himself this was to help Kravitz’s bar. Fresh seafood could really make all the difference. 

_From: Krav_

_Fine. But give me a minute, where should I meet you?_

Taako felt elated at the response, and his fingers went flying over his screen to relay the address to Kravitz. 

He was already dressed and ready, but figured he could make himself a cup of coffee before leaving, and turned on the machine. 

His feelings for Kravitz hadn’t diminished in the slightest in the past couple of weeks since he told himself he’d stop crushing on him. Just when Taako thinks he might been able to get over him, Kravitz would do something to pull Taako back in, and as much as Taako searched, he couldn’t find any true flaws in the man. 

Sure he was a workaholic, but that was because he was passionate, and was something that attracted Taako to Kravitz more. 

But there wasn’t anything he could do as long as he was engaged. At the very least he respected Kravitz enough to not meddle in his relationship for his own personal gain. 

Taako cursed his conscience for being good, even when he didn’t want it to be, and put his forehead on the cool counter, sighing deeply. 

The coffee maker beeped, and Taako took out one of his Sizzlin’ it Up with Taako travel mugs to fill with coffee. Honestly, he hated that he had about 5 of them, but he always ended up with one during promotional events. 

Just as he was putting the necessary cream and sugar into his cup, his phone buzzed. 

_From: Krav_

_Okay, I’m on my way. I should be there in 15 minutes._

Taako grabbed the keys for the car and his reusable bags, and left the house he shared with Lup and Barry. 

The drive to the fish market wasn’t a particularly long one, but it was boring as hell, as the only thing on the radio were talk shows and news, and Taako was feeling particularly vested in listening to music. But he was already in the car and wouldn’t fiddle with his phone while driving to plug in the aux. 

When Taako pulled into the market, he stepped out of the car, looking down at his phone to see if he got any new text messages. He made sure to grab his bags and leaned against the car to wait for Kravitz. 

The market was full of fishmongers and greengrocers yelling to their crew to get the stalls ready for customers. The fish had yet to take on a strong pungent smell, but it was still easily discernible from the regularly crisp air. 

It wasn’t long before the bartender pulled into the market, it was easy to spot him, as the market was fairly empty this time of morning. He drove a sensible, businesslike car painted black and he parked next to Taako. 

Kravitz stepped out of his car with a smile. 

“You know, I’ve been curious about this place since you told me about it a couple weeks ago,” Kravitz said, walking around his car to stand by Taako. 

“Well, it’s only the premier spot for fresh fish. They sell other stuff here too, but there’s a farmers market that sells better produce and shit,” Taako said, slinging his bags over his shoulder. “I still can’t believe you don’t shop local. You pay all that shipping costs to get fresh shit from companies for nothing, my man.”

“Well, I might be interested in changing my tune per your recommendation, chef,” Kravitz joked, nudging Taako with his elbow. 

Taako was used to being called chef, but it sounded more special coming from Kravitz. 

Outside of work, Taako learned recently, Kravitz was much more casual. Of course coming to the Raven’s Nest as regulars had made Kravitz more familiar, but he still put up a professional wall during work. 

They walked around the market, and Taako gave Kravitz the rundown on the best fish for each dishes, and when they got to oysters, Taako insisted that Kravitz buy some for the Raven’s Nest. 

“Cook with these tonight, and I swear, you’ll notice the difference,” Taako said proudly, passing over a reusable bag for Kravitz to set his paper bag in. 

“I don’t need that,” Kravitz said, and Taako slid it onto his arm anyway. 

“Yes you will, the oyster are wet, they’ll soak through that paper bag in no time.”

Kravitz stared at Taako for a while, as if he were a paragon of wisdom. 

Taako was used to it, and he turned to survey more fish. 

They walked around for a while longer, while Taako made the occasional fish jape, making Kravitz laugh lightly at his silliness, and after a while, Kravitz began to fall quiet. 

“Taako, can I ask you something?”

The tone of his voice had obviously shifted to something a little more serious, and Taako felt his heart rate pick up, not knowing what Kravitz could possibly want. 

“For sure, homie.”

“It’s Eileen. She’s been acting a bit, different lately. More short with me, and honestly a little...mean. But I don’t know how to talk to her about it,” Kravitz said. 

Taako rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. There was nothing more torturous than having to give his crush tips with his fiance. Except for maybe attending his crush’s wedding. But he wouldn’t think about that. 

“Quite honestly, I don’t think I’m the best person to ask,” Taako said,looking away. Kravitz sighed. 

“Alright, no problem,” he said. 

“I mean, I don’t really do feelings, and talking about them and stuff, so I wouldn’t know how to help,” Taako scrambled, feeling a bit frazzled. “But I think just being straight up would be the best approach.”

Kravitz smiled. 

“Okay, thanks. I’ll try that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come yell at me about Taakitz (or just taz in general) on my [tumblr](https://12-trackmind.tumblr.com/)!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am going to post despite my lack of internet. One day I won't have to go to the coffee shop down the street to work on things.
> 
> Thank you to [Cai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/localabyss) for always making sure this fic makes actual sense. They are a godsend.

“Taako, you did an interview with Review Weekly where you brought in a guest Kravitz. Can you elaborate more on the nature of your relationship with him?”

“How long have you been attending the Raven’s Nest and how often do you frequent it?”

“Tell us more about Kravitz.”

“I’m sorry, I thought this was an interview session for me,” Taako said through his frazzled nerves and the cacophony of voices.

In reality, he should’ve known this was going to happen, but hindsight’s 20/20.

Spring was in full bloom, and he was supposed to start his tour tomorrow. Therefore, Taako was holding a last minute press conference to talk about what to expect, but of course, all the attention was on Kravitz.

Which is fine, except Taako was trying to get over him.

But there wasn’t much else he could suspect when he was so secretive about his personal life. The moment there was any shred of a personal connection, reporters went after them. The media had a field day when he came out about his sexuality.

Sometimes the media was helpful, like with Barry’s research. The limelight helped him gain social following and funds to continue his ecological work. Lup bounced around helping Barry and helping Taako, working odd jobs up until recently. Taako’s publicity had been able to help more locals discover Magnus and his handiwork, and Merle, who was a retired nurse who now worked as a florist, also saw good business, especially from companies that would hire him for regular arrangements. Lucretia worked in the local library and as a historian at the museum, so it wasn’t like her jobs needed any promoting, despite their importance. And Davenport was also living his retired life sailing wherever waters would take him. Taako sponsored his friends’ passions as well; he would be lost without them after all.

And now, he was helping Kravitz, even after barely knowing the guy.

But that wasn’t true. Taako may not have known Kravitz for that long but he knew what type of man Kravitz was. Sure Kravitz was level-headed, calm and collected, but he put so much care into his work, always trying to make it better. Not to mention that mixology was close enough to Taako's own pursuits that his interest in investment were piqued.

And _maybe_ his crush factored into that a little bit.

But that didn’t mean he wanted everyone to be asking questions about Kravitz all the time.  
He answered as many non-Kravitz questions that he was inclined to give information on. Of course, there was some reporter or two that tried to stealthily ask about more personal information, but Taako had steeled himself to answering any questions about his past on the basis that it wasn’t anybody else’s business, especially not the world’s.

He landed on his bed in his trailer that night with a groan. Sazed, his assistant, knew better than to ask about how he was doing after impromptu press conferences, and he told their driver to begin making the long drive to Maine.

Taako checked his social media, conscientious about how many followers he had and what people were saying about him. He was trying to build his brand after all.

In the middle of reading a long tweet about how he had inspired the love of culinary arts in a high schooler, Taako received a message from Kravitz.

_From: Krav_

_Safe travels. Keep me updated on your tour._

_Well, as updated as you can since you’ll be busy._

Taako couldn’t help but smile. He knew there wasn’t any hidden meaning behind the bartender’s words, but he couldn’t help but feel his heart warmed.

_To: Krav_

_thanks homie_

_press conference was a bitch_

_From: Krav_

_Oh no. Do you want to talk about it?_

Kravitz was really too nice for his own good.

_To: Krav_

_nah bubelah. thanks tho_

Kravitz didn’t respond after that, and Taako assumed it was probably because of work. Sequestered away in his room on the trailer, he let out a deep breath and allowed his walls to come down. His fingers were starting to ache, and he wiggled them.

He knew he couldn’t call Lup, because she was working too, so Taako just turned on some playlist recommended by Spotify to help him wind down and hopefully sleep for the tour that started tomorrow.

When he blinked, his eyes adjusted to the light of the caseworker’s office he had once been so accustomed to.

Back before they were Lup and Taako, they were Mark and Alec, identical twins in the foster system following the brutal death of their parents.

“You know you can’t just run away from your parents, right?”

They’d been caught _again_. Mark was starting to think they had trackers on them.

“We can take care of ourselves. And those people aren’t our parents, they won’t even call Lup by her name,” he responded, his voice cracking with frustration. He would never accept the two they’d been placed with as parents, after all, they didn’t accept him and Lup, still insisting to call her Alec, and demanding she stop wearing dresses and skirts. Mark didn’t even have to come out to them to know they wouldn’t be accepting of his sexuality as well.

Their caseworker Andre sighed, rubbing his temples.

“We’ll see what we can do about talking with Erika and Herschel about their attitudes, but for now, you _have_ to stay there. If someone hadn’t called you in, you could’ve easily been…” He didn’t finish his sentence, but Mark and Lup knew what he meant. Lup started crying softly.

When they were returned back to the house they’d been assigned to, their foster parents scolded them, but Mark and Lup tuned it out. After an uneventful dinner, where attempts at conversation fizzled and died, the twins went to their shared bedroom and locked the door. That night, they both logged on to their laptops, one of the only possessions that they still retained in the system, and keepsakes from their birth parents.

As often as they could, they would play World of Warcraft, finding solace in their online friends and the guild they shared.

The two siblings cuddled on the bed as the game started, and their two characters Taako and Lup showed on their screens.

In the game they could be whomever they wanted, which was so appealing to both of them. They could escape the shitty lives they’d lived so far and be important heroes, and have friends who accepted them for them.

Taako didn’t know much about some of the people in his small guild, but all of them were high levels and very involved. He knew that Magnus was loving his shop class and thinking about going into wood-working professionally. Davenport served a while in the navy and would occasionally be gone for vacations at sea even though he was just a regular civilian now, and it was evident that the man loved the ocean. Lucretia was quiet, working on her history degree at a college in Virginia so she could work an internship with the Smithsonian in the summers. Barry was graduating high school this year and anticipating going to college for biology.

And then there was Merle.

The retired nurse who had helped with their physical and emotional rehabilitation after their parents’ murder. He was the one who originally suggested WoW to them years ago, and the suggestion had been a god send.

Magnus and Barry were the closest to their age, only a couple of years older than the twins, but they were like a family, especially because Mark and Lup didn’t have a stable one.

Once they logged on, they checked to see who of their friends was online and saw the familiar screen names “CanIPetYourDog” and “Captain_Port”

“Woah, is Davenport really online? Is he back from Hawaii” Lup asked.

“I guess so. We _have_ been gone for a while,” Taako said, typing a greeting into their guild chat.

_CanIPetYourDog: HEY GUYS!!!!!!_

_CanIPetYourDog: YOU BEEN GONES FOR SO LONG WE WERE WORRIED :DDDD_

_CanIPetYourDog: GONE*_

_Captain_Port: you’ve*_

_Taako: we were grounded, homies :P_

_CanIPetYourDog: Aw that SUCKS_

Lup snickered before checking her dailies.

Later Lucretia logged on, and the five of them ran a world boss while working on side quests.

Mark swore that once they were old enough, him and Lup were going to create their own lives, just like they could in WoW. Mark was going to take his culinary skills and make a name for himself to escape having to listen to anyone else ever again.

Despite the relatively normal nature of the dream, Taako awoke in a cold sweat, feeling his heart racing in a way that he knew would only end in bad news.

He stood up and began pacing, honing in on the sound of the large touring van driving in the night to help calm his frazzled nerves. Taako could hear Sazed, only a room away, talking lightly with their driver, Ronald, and he also used their speaking voices to steady himself.

Taking a deep breath, Taako expelled the nerves from his system, and checked the time on his phone.  
2:30 am

For a moment, the thought of calling Kravitz’s passed through his head, as he might still be cleaning from the night, but then Taako remembered that his goal was to be getting over Kravitz. He groaned and sat on his bed, brushing through his long, blond locks with his fingers and pondering his next moves, before the sound of Sazed’s laughter interrupted him.

Sazed.

The younger man looked up to Taako, having said on numerous occasions how much of an honor it was to work by his side. And the two of them had grown a sort of stable and trusting relationship, just the kind of relationship Taako could fall back on in this time of need.

He sighed and bit the bullet, opening up his door and walking into the main area of the van.

“Taako! I’m sorry, did I wake you?” Sazed asked, worry written on his face.

Taako flashed him a smile and opened the mini fridge, taking out a bottle of wine.

“Nah, couldn’t sleep. Come drink with me?”

Sazed considered it for a moment before picking himself up from where he sat by the driver, and sat on the couch across from where Taako placed himself.

Taako poured Sazed’s glass first, passing it to him before pouring his own.

“It’s pretty late, isn’t it?” Sazed asked a bit nervously.

“Never too late for a glass of wine, bubelah,” he said, tipping his glass and letting the tart liquid slide down his throat. He drank deliberately with a certain elegance, and from the corner of his eye he watched Sazed watch him.

Check mate. And Taako hadn’t even had to work that hard.

The two of them kept drinking and Taako laid on the flirting until he had Sazed dancing in the palm of his hand. It was easy, when adoration was already there. 

Taako wasted no time crawling on the other man’s lap, rubbing at his chest and kissing him. It was sloppy, and took a while for Taako to get interested in what he was doing, but he was playing Sazed like a fiddle, working him up easily. Taako’s goal was to keep his mind off of Kravitz, but everytime he honed in on touching Sazed, he wondered how it would feel to touch Kravitz instead. 

Clothes came off, and as much as Taako wanted to get into the sensation of finally having a body on his, he couldn’t pull himself into the experience, and his orgasm came after what seemed like a monumental task. Sazed’s flopping above him did nothing for him and he ended up finishing himself off after Sazed finished inside of him. 

Afterwards, he definitely felt himself turned off from thinking of any other male encounters, including Kravitz, so he could consider that as a win.

***

“I wanted to apologize for how I acted the other day,” Eileen said over lunch with Kravitz. “I was really stressed out and was taking it out on you, but that wasn’t right.”

Kravitz had been wanting to ask her what was up about her behavior when they were searching for dresses, but Eileen seemed to beat him to it. He smiled after she apologized, feeling much better about the situation. 

“It’s alright, I know this has all been very stressful for you, please let me know if there is anything I can do to help assuage that.”

Eileen looked like she wanted to say something else, but she decided against it. Kravitz wondered what was on her mind but wasn’t going to push her to tell him. 

“My mom wanted to have lunch with us later this week, if that’s okay with you,” she said finally, as they waited for their food to come. 

“Sure, what day?” Kravitz asked, and Eileen looked around. 

“Is it just me, or does something smell like fish?” she asked, leaning in. 

Kravitz laughed nervously. 

“That’s probably me. I went to the fish market with Taako earlier and haven’t changed my clothes yet,” Kravitz explained. 

Eileen looked down at her phone, at the picture she received a while ago from a friend of Kravitz at the Pride festival, and she hid a disdainful face. The photo showed Kravitz wearing his Bi pride t-shirt as he walked around. It was a candid shot, taken unbeknownst to the subject.

“Taako, huh? Interesting.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some baCKSTORY. 
> 
> come yell at me on [tumblr!](https://12-trackmind.tumblr.com/)


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to [Cai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/localabyss) for literally being the GOAT when it comes to beta'ing this fic. 
> 
> I don't have internet at my place so updates will probably be sporadic for whenever I can get internet.

Kravitz knew that going on that interview with Taako would be a pain in the ass.

Journalists started to swarm his bar, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, as they could write about how fantastic the food and drink was and bring in more customers, but it was a bit of a hassle that they expected him to answer their questions while he had work to do. The first couple of journalists he gave the time of day, but after the 10th person walked through his door asking about his relationship with Taako, Kravitz started shutting them out – politely of course.  
The undercover journalists were the best; those who pretended to be plain customers vying for romantic information. Kravitz made sure everyone knew he was engaged, even though he was still bitter about it.

However, two weeks into Taako’s tour, and Kravitz realized he actually missed the trouble-causing blond. Of course, it meant he didn’t have to hound him about closing his tab, but something about the bar seemed a little less lively, even with all of Taako’s friends around keeping Kravitz company.

He hadn’t even noticed when he began to meld with the group, but before he knew it, Magnus was inviting him to an art opening for one of his friends from high school. Barry would chatter aimlessly about the updates on his ecology work, details he’d already heard from an excited Lup, and he had been invited to even more board game nights with all of them, without needing Taako as a social bridge. He tried to go to as many events as he could with his free time, not realizing how much he enjoyed and craved social companionship.

“You need to hire another mixologist, dude,” Magnus complained after another turned down invitation to board game night. “Hanging out with you is fine, but it’d be cool to do stuff at night too.”

“Look at you, using big words like ‘mixologist’,” Kravitz joked to him as he wiped down the counter. There wasn’t really any dead time nowadays, and Kravitz felt himself maybe needing an extra pair of hands to keep everything stable, and to let himself take a break.

That night at closing, Eileen came in, and smiled pleasantly to customers. It was rare to see her nowadays since Kravitz didn’t need her help with receipts and she didn’t really help with cleaning, so Kravitz made sure to take her hand where it was resting on the bar and give it a little squeeze with a smile to show that he was glad she was here.

Because it was a Friday night, the kitchen didn’t close until 12, which meant Lup was still working to organize and clean everything for the next day of service.

30 minutes before the bar closed, she came and sat beside Eileen. The band that played that night had already left, so it was much easier to hear across the bar.

“Yo, Krav, get me a Gin and Tonic,” Lup said, smacking the wooden bar.

“What’s the magic word?” Kravitz asked, but began making it.

“Uh…now?” Lup said, with a wide smile that Kravitz knew meant she was going to fuck with him endlessly.

“I was looking for ‘please’.”

“Aw, come on, Krav, you know I love you,” Lup said, leaning on the bar. “Please?”

Kravitz slid over the Gin and Tonic, and Eileen laughed at her antics.

“And my name is ‘Kravitz’.”

The bartender went to serve other customers and Lup drank on her Gin and Tonic, eyeing Eileen every now and then. She was curious about Kravitz’s fiancée, and hadn’t gotten much of a chance to speak to her and dig into who she was.

Eileen was well dressed, in a button up ruffled top that was black with red polka dots, tucked into a black pencil skirt. She wore black tights and red flats, and her dark hair was pulled into a clip. She looked pretty professional, especially compared to some of the other patrons at the bar. Hell, Lup had a myriad of sauces and food smeared on her t-shirt, due to her naturally chaotic nature in the kitchen.

“So, Eileen, what kinds of things do you do for fun?” Lup asked, testing the waters.

Eileen smiled at Lup.

“Well, I love to run, I’m going to be participating in the marathon coming up.”

“Yuck,” Lup said, before adding onto her statement. “That sounds like a lot of physical fitness.”

“Well, sure, but I assume you work out a little too, what with your figure,” Eileen said, and Lup felt the flattery of her statement.

“Yeah, I do some maintenance cardio, yoga and shit like that. Pretty chill stuff,” Lup said, taking another sip of her drink.

“Well, it really pays off, you look really good.”

Okay, Lup could probably come around to liking this girl.

They continued to chat about their love of the downtown boutiques until the Raven’s Nest closed, and Lup sighed, getting off of her stool to clean.

“Damn you, Kravitz, I was having a wonderful conversation with your fiancée,” Lup said, and balled up the wet napkin her cup was sitting on before throwing it to the trash can on the other side of the bar. It missed and Lup shrugged.

After closing the bar he headed to Waffle House with Eileen. She seemed to be in a pleasant mood after talking with Lup, which put Kravitz in a pleasant mood.

“I didn’t know Lup was so cool, I should’ve talked to her ages ago,” Eileen giggled as Kravitz pulled into Waffle House.

“She is, and she’s a great addition to the team,” Kravitz started, walking inside. “I’m thinking of hiring another bartender.”

The two of them seated themselves in their regular booth and Eileen looked over to him.

“Why?”

“Well, the bar’s been doing better, and we have the money for an extra employee. Plus it’s hard managing it and bartending it every night. I’d like to have some free time.”

“But you love bartending and owning the Raven’s Nest,” Eileen said, her tone suggesting that she was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“I do love it, but I have no free time at all. It’d be nice to go out with friends.”

Eileen nodded, but didn’t say anything for a while, just taking a long sip from her water.

“That _would_ be nice, and we could start going on real dates. Not that I mind our Waffle House dates, but it’s not necessarily the most romantic ambiance.”

Kravitz could theoretically understand where she was coming from, but disagreed with her. He had enjoyed their Waffle House dates, and thought that as long as they could spend time together, they could have a good time.

It just added another thing to the list that made of the enigma of Eileen. Kravitz didn’t know how to feel about her. On one hand, she was the most practical engagement choice, with a steady job in business marketing, and a balanced life of exercise and hobbies. She seemed like a very mature person who was ready and willing to marry Kravitz. But the growing disagreements and her occasional negative and rude attitudes were cracking the rosy shades of engagement.  
But at least she liked his friends.

That night, Kravitz pondered how he would go about hiring another employee. The first step would be building more dependable income in the store, which would take a few months, but he was ready to pull out all the stops.

Grabbing his phone, he dialed Taako.

***

“I want you, Taako,” Sazed purred in his ear, with his arms wound tightly around Taako’s waist.

Taako wasn’t really a fan of all the clinginess that Sazed was showing, and started to regret even sleeping with him in the first place. They were still on tour and in each other’s vicinity virtually all day every day. But despite the negatives about Sazed, Taako swore he could feel his feelings for Kravitz waning.

He pushed out of Sazed’s hold as his phone started ringing.

“Yes, hello?”

_”Hey, Taako, it’s Kravitz.”_

“Kravitz!” Taako exclaimed, turning from Sazed and walking to his room on the van.

They hadn’t spoken in nearly two weeks, only texting. Taako felt his heart surge at the sound of Kravitz’s voice and he knew the progress he’d made on getting over Kravitz was slipping.

“What’s up, my man, make it quick,” Taako said.

_“Sorry, I know it’s late. Oh geez it’s like 3:30, I can call you back tomorrow, I’m sorry if I woke you up,”_ Kravitz babbled, and Taako couldn’t help but laugh.

“Calm down, it’s fine. Just tell me what’s up,” Taako said.

_“Well, I was thinking about hiring another bartender and maybe another chef, but I need to make more money at the bar and was wondering if you had any ideas?”_

Taako felt his excitement pique. The off times during the tour were boring at best and miserable at worst, so being able to brainstorm and plan out ideas to implement for the Raven’s Nest was going to be one of the highlights of this whole tour.

The two of them stayed up for nearly another hour just coming up with ideas to get more people through the door and more money flowing, and both men went to bed feeling productive that night.

And for the first time in the past couple of weeks, Taako slept easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little redemption for Eileen? Maybe?
> 
> We'll see.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are appreciated! Come yell at me about Taakitz on [Tumblr](https://12-trackmind.tumblr.com/)!


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